Before they began on 8 August, the Beijing Olympics promised a murky cocktail of pollution and repression, with an entire city drilled into submission, human rights shunted aside and dissidents disappeared, possibly into the swirling smog. These were to be the no-fun Games.
But in their first days at least, the Olympics have been surprisingly sunny, free from unsavoury politics and the angst of the showpiece track-and-field events to come. Even the steely stage management - the lip-syncing child singer, the computer-generated "fireworks" and cheerleaders hired to fill seats - has been overshadowed by the sheer excitement of the competition.
Besides the mandatory Chinese dominance of the medals table, Beijing 2008 has offered heroic spectacles: best of all, for Britain, the double triumph of Rebecca Adlington and Joanne Jackson, swimmers in the women's 400m freestyle.
There has also been the usual quota of misbehaviour: Blake Aldridge grumbled unsporting caveats about his 14-year-old diving partner Tom Daley; a photograph of the Spanish basketball team pulling "slit-eyed" faces was published; and a shapely US beach volleyball player offered George W Bush the opportunity to slap her bottom - a tradition, apparently, between victorious team-mates.
It's been, so far, fun. We must hope that the international goodwill on display in Beijing for these few days will survive there after the Games have ended.
