- Read Sharron Davies' blog

Its official, London is now the host City for the next Olympics! All we need to do now is build everything in time! Now that’s a task that is just as hard as it was to win a total of 47 medals in this year’s games.

47 medals - that’s some haul. Firstly, I would like to congratulate each and every competitor in Team GB - you have done us proud.

Yes, there were some disappointing performances and results but that was always going to be the case.

There is no team that does not have its fair share of disappointments, but with our 19 golds, 13 silvers and 15 bronze medals we definitely have something to shout about and, more importantly, something to build on for "our" games in 2012.

The final chance of winning a medal in this year’s games was in the men’s marathon.

Closing ceremony
We were not expecting to win any medals in this event so we knew that 47 was going to be the total medal count for Team GB. The final event for the whole of Team GB was therefore the closing ceremony.

Unlike the opening ceremony, which a lot of athletes (including myself) would opt to miss, the closing ceremony is something which the majority of competitors want to take part in.

With all of the hard work done - the four years of training, the sacrifices, the emotions, the nerves, the pain and the glory - it is time to celebrate what the Olympic games are all about.

As a competitor , the closing of the games is a time to rejoice in taking part in the greatest show on earth. A time to forget the politics, war and other problems in the world.

You have some time to share the good and bad times of the games with team mates, officials and even the people you compete against.

Over the years I made loads of new friends at the closing ceremony. You go through many emotions from happiness and sadness and even spend time reflecting on what the Olympic games means to you.

It's hard to not feel any emotion when sitting at home watching the highlights of the games - especially if you’ve been to one yourself. Seeing the looks on the faces of the winners, the injured, and the disappointed, is real moving stuff.

It always gets to me as I know what that all feels like - apart from the feeling of winning an Olympic medal! And I guess, like other athletes that did not win medals, we all feel a little sad that it did not come right for everybody.

But there is total admiration for all that have won medals regardless of their creed or colour.

If the opening ceremony was anything to go by, we knew we were in for one hell of a show, and we were not disappointed at all.

London calling
The part that I guess meant the most to the whole of the UK was the passing of the baton from Beijing to London. London Mayor, Boris Johnson, accepted the Olympic flag from IOC President Jacques Rogge which officially begins the London Olympiad.

There were plenty of legends from the world of sport, and stars from the world of entertainment on hand to add to the celebrations on that so typically British red bus!

For the 90,000 plus crowd, the appearance of David Beckham was the icing on the cake as he is a massive star out in China. I am not a huge football fan but I do believe he played a part in London winning the bid.

At the time, Beckham played football for a Spanish team, and, as soon as they were out of the running, all the Spanish voters voted for London. It was a smart move to take him to the voting. That feels like many years ago now!

I was glad to see him make an appearance in Beijing. I was not fussed about Leona Lewis (as good looking as she is!), and Led Zeppelin guitarist - Jimmy whatever his name is – because to me the games are about sportsmen and women! There will be plenty of time for these guys to perform at the opening ceremony and do what they do best.

I am told there are 1,443 days to go before the opening ceremony in London and the countdown has begun.

Team GB will be looking to build on their successes of the last two weeks where they finished a fantastic fourth place in the medals table - our best performance for 100 years, as I bet you have heard said many times!

Beijing 2008 highlights
Here are some of my highlights from Beijing 2008:

Double gold and world record breaker Rebecca Adlington in the swimming. She has to go down in history along with Chris Hoy and Ben Ainslie as three of the biggest successes of the games.

On the track, with no doubt, Christine Ohuruogu was the performance of the games for me from a British standpoint. She ran a technically perfect race to come home with Olympic gold, adding to her World and Commonwealth gold’s.

Tasha Danvers surprise bronze in the 400m hurdles and Germaine Manson’s silver in the high jump.

Philips O’s triple jump medal may not have been the colour he wanted but it is a medal and he can build on that. I know he was disappointed but there were other performances that really were disappointing.

Kelly Sotherton, Marylyn Okoro were two athletes that I felt could have done better. As I’ve said before, the men’s and women’s long and short relay teams were very disappointing to me as I expected them all to be fighting for medals.

The sprint relay teams have no excuse - they should be able to get the baton around if nothing else!

A spot in the final for Martyn Rooney would have been fantastic, but after seeing him run 44.6 in the semi’s and then seeing 44.7 get a silver, I was a bit disappointed he was not able to reproduce his semi final run.

I am sure they will have learnt a lot from these games, so, with that experience and a home crowd who knows what we can expect from them in 2012.

But for Bolt, three golds and three world records is also phenomenal, 9.69 and 19.30 is out of this world. At the moment I think he is the only person who is capable of breaking his own records.

Exceeded expectations
Well, above all, Team GB exceeded their expected 30 medals predicted by UK Sport. What made me laugh was that they, UK Sport, changed their prediction half way through the games! Do you think my local betting shop will let me do that during next year’s Grand National?

My early medal predictions were somewhere between 25 and 30 medals, if I remember correctly. Well, it shows you what I know about rowing and cycling.

On the track I feel a little disappointed overall. I know we were only one medal off our target but, if it had not been for the surprise medals from the women’s 400m hurdles and the men’s high jump, we would be way down.

The question I have is: why did the people we expected to medal underperform?

I don’t want to end on a low note as there are many reasons for us to be pleased with our overall performances at these games.

We are definitely on the right road to better this performance in London but we must remember that some of our medallists will retire by 2012. And, in events like cycling, the rest of the world will be looking at the system used by the Brits, as well as our equipment, so expect the rest of the world to catch up!

As the games are in London next time around I hope you will all make the effort to attend, even if it is only for one event on one day - it will be worth it let me tell you.

To be a part of the Olympic games is something very special. I am lucky to have competed in two games and attend many others and I am hoping to be involved in 2012.

The Olympics will only be in the UK once in a lot of our lifetimes, so make sure you don’t miss out on being a part of the greatest show on earth.

- Read Sharron Davies' blog