XXVII reasons for you to remember the XXVIIth Olympiad

1 Cathy Freeman: Cathy came home first, as there was never much doubt she would once Marie-José Pérec cracked up and pulled out. But her 400m victory, and her selection to light the flame in the opening ceremony, were of huge symbolic and cultural significance to a country attempting to assuage its guilt over treatment of Aboriginals.

2 Steve Redgrave: If these were Cathy's Games from a global perspective, the 38-year-old diabetic Redgrave's heroics will be remembered every bit as fondly in Britain. Shared, of course, with three other men in a boat.

3 Opening ceremony: Like the Games itself, widely regarded as the best ever. On October 18 there'll be another one, for the Paralympics, with the only feature that the original lacked: Kylie Minogue.

4 Drugs: From Bulgarian weightlifters to a tiny Romanian gymnast, the curse raised its ugly head. Staff at the village refused to clean Bulgarians' rooms after two had been cut by discarded needles.

5 Jonathan Edwards: God, praised by competitor after competitor for a gold medal, had a good Olympics. Britain's triple jumper was one of His star disciples in making up for the disappointment of missing out on victory four years ago.

6 Denise Lewis: Deservedly joined the ranks of female British athletes with a gold medal by taking the heptathlon with two seconds to spare after two days of intense competition in seven events.

7 Eric Moussambani : Eric the Eel, Equatorial Guinea's star swimmer, was the first and most exceptional of many competitors, who proved that the taking part, not the winning, really was the thing. Unlike most of the others, he even won a heat, when his co-competitors in the 100 metres freestyle – "I've never swum that far before" – were disqualified.

8 Hello Sailors: The least spectator-friendly or televisual Olympic sport provided one of the most dramatic moments, when Ben Ainslie did his man-marking job on the frustrated Brazilian Robert Scheidt to ensure one of Britain's three sailing golds.

9 Great Britain 1 Pakistan 8: A men's hockey result that left the Radio 5 Live pundit Sean Kerly "speechless". "It's no good being speechless on the radio, Sean," his co-commentator Ron Jones pointed out. The team (and the radio men) rallied with an encouraging win over India.

10 Iranian weightlifters: In the acid words of Ronny Weller, the German beaten to gold by Hossein Rezazadeh in the super-heavyweight class: "The Iranians keep coming from nowhere, like in a Steven Spielberg movie." Rezazadeh lifted 40 stone, which was even more than his rivals weighed, to earn the unofficial title of "world's strongest man".

11 Lottery funding: Historians looking back at reasons for Britain's dramatic improvement from the low-point of one gold at Atlanta should not under-estimate Camelot's contribution. Winner after winner in sports without prize money like rowing, cycling and sailing acknowledged their (figurative) debt.

12 Williams Sisters and Woodies: The sisters had a golden tournament and the Woodies had to settle for a farewell silver, but both pairs rescued an otherwise drab tennis event.

13 Mr and Mrs Jones: C J Hunter's positive drugs test, for being 1,000 times over the limit for nandrolone, was revealed at the least helpful time for his missus, who won three golds, but fell short in the long jump and her drive for five.

14 Crowds: Packed houses for handball and cross-country cycling were as impressive as the six figure attendances for athletics and 92,000 who turned out for the Australian soccer team.

15 Richard Faulds: At a time when guns have an increasingly bad reputation, the trap-shooter from Longparish did much for the reputation of one of the more esoteric sports with his gold medal.

16 Boxing medal for Britain: Audley Harrison from the Repton club in east London provided diverting entertainment in and out of the ring as he attempted to emulate some of the greats who have won Olympic gold as a prelude to a lucrative pro career.

17 Chris Maddocks : Another competitor who summed up the real spirit of the Games far better than many of the winners. Staggered into the stadium at the end of the 50km walk 39th and last, more than an hour after the winner, but insisted on finishing, injured or not.

18 New Aussies: f Cathy Freeman helped the host nation take a giant step towards embracing multi-culturalism, the popularity of immigrants like the pole vaulters Tatiana Grigorieva and her partner Viktor Christiakov also emphasised that the Games were not just for those who think like an Aussie and drink like an Aussie.

19 Fatso the Wombat: The irreverent Channel 7 show The Dream, with cult figures Roy Slaven and HG Nelson, came up with Fatso as an alternative to the usual cuddly-toy official mascots. Up for auction for charity at the weekend, he was knocked down for more than A$80,000.

20 Jason Queally: An early gold medal, especially an unexpected one, can do wonders to encourage the troops, and Queally's, in cycling's 1km time-trial, did just that for Team GB.

21 Triathlon: Is it junk sport, or a classic example of human endurance? The Aussies loved its Olympics debut, which brought colour and an exciting finish to the first morning of competition.

22 Beach volleyball: Attracted its share of voyeurs, but was indisputably decorative. Provided one of the upsets of the Games when Australia (coastline 8,850 miles) lost to Austria (not a lot of coastline).

23 Marla Runyan: Not only the first Paralympian to become an Olympian, Marla, registered blind, even reached the final of the 1500 metres.

24 Race-walking judges: More red cards than Graham Poll on an officious day; a disqualification for the Mexican man who had already done his victory interview and a tear-jerking one for the Aussie woman as she led going into the stadium.

25 Volunteers: Clad in rainbow shirts, thousands of stewards staffed bus stops, railway stations, and stadium entrances without assuming any jobsworth tendencies. Indispensable part of any Olympic bid.

26 US baseball team: Allowed for the first time to use pros, US opted for veterans and wannabes, and duly lost 6-1 in a bad-tempered qualifying match against Cuba, which their fast-talking 73-year-old coach Tommy Lasorda had declared "a war on Castro". For the final, he toned down the General Patton stuff and Cuba were beaten 4-0.

27 Mateyness: Even the few Sydneysiders with no great taste for sport seemed proud that their city was staging the Games. When they said "have a nice day", they actually meant it.

- INDEPENDENT