Keely Hodgkinson surging to a stunning Olympic title will surely go down as one of the moments of this storied sporting summer.
Or what about that thrilling 1,500m race for the agesjust 24 hours later, where Josh Kerr brilliantly lowered the colours of arch nemesis Jakob Ingebrigtsen - but somehow forgot about unknown American Cole Hocker on the inside?
The week before in Paris, we had Tom Pidco*ck’s heart-thumping mountain bike gold, Alex Yee’s dramatic late overtake to grab triathlon glory and Britain’s women’s rowers remarkably reeling in the Dutch to snatch gold by the barest of margins.
That’s only the Olympics - and when you throw in Ollie Watkins’ late winner to propel England into the Euro 2024 final, that unerring penalty shoot-out display against Switzerland and Jude Bellingham’s extraordinary last-gasp bicycle kick to rescue Gareth Southgate’s side against Slovakia, it’s difficult to dispute this has been one of the most memorable few months of sport in recent history.
Writing this from the Paris Olympics, and having watched two of those Three Lions moments from Glastonbury - on a temporary TV set up by One Direction star Louis Tomlinson - and an uncharacteristically raucous Wimbledon media bar, it’s safe to say I’ve remained relatively detached from the turbulent world of all things Norwich City.
Which to be honest, may be no bad thing.
Of course, I’ve been following Johannes Hoff Thorup’s early progress, the club’s pre-season results and all the tenuous transfer gossip which to be honest, can occasionally get tedious at times when so much other sport is going on.
All eyes will be on Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)
But given we spend around nine months of the year following our beloved club’s trials and tribulations, it’s been refreshing to enjoy a summer where the Canaries have been the least of my sporting worries.
In the 85 days since that painful play-off pummelling at Elland Road, it’s been a joy to spend three weeks in the French capital for the Games, two weeks covering Wimbledon, one week in Germany for the Euros and at both Glastonbury and Royal Ascot with mates.
But here we go again - come Saturday lunchtime in Oxford, the rocky Championship rollercoaster kicks into gear once again as City enter an exciting new era under Thorup.
After the division and criticism that characterised the previous two post-Daniel Farke regimes, the yellow and green slate has now been wiped clean.
Whatever you thought of both David Wagner and Dean Smith, we now all need to throw our weight behind this progressive new project that will inevitably take time to reap rewards.
Pre-season results - and performances - have done little to inject us with optimism and, just like Farke’s first campaign seven years ago, I think we all agree that this may require some patience.
Despite Nelson Oliveira’s dramatic late leveller to salvage a Craven Cottage point in the German’s first game, I can vividly remember departing a sunbaked Den just three weeks later fuming at the ineptitude on display as we slumped to that miserable Millwall mauling.
There was also that laboured, most lateral of performances against Sunderland in Farke’s opening home match, followed the week after by a chaotic 4-2 defeat – which could have been so much worse if it wasn’t for Angus Gunn in goal – at a vociferous Villa Park.
Just like then, it’s unlikely the first few games will give us an accurate indication of what the Dane can go on to achieve here and until he has a squad conducive to executing his principles at his disposal – Farke obviously did not possess Teemu Pukki, Emi Buendia or Max Aarons until his second season – it would be premature to generate a fully-informed opinion on Thorup.
That said, he will need to show us fans – many of whom remain understandably frustrated after two seasons of often uninspiring football – some glimmers of hope in an early set of home games that on paper, appear difficult.
This sizzling sporting summer has now – almost – been and gone and the time has now come to fasten our seatbelts for what we hope can be another heart-racing few years ahead.
But while I follow events at the Kassam Stadium from a potentially more salubrious Stade de France setting, I will keep in mind how our previous bold new era first started and why patience will be paramount as Thorup gets his fascinating Norwich City journey underway.
