Steve Redgrave's glorious fifth consecutive gold will similarly live long in the memory and one of the great track stars of the century Michael Johnson bade us farewell in inimitable style - with gold in the men's 400m.
The Olympics may have been born in Greece, but 2000 will forever be remembered as the year it was adopted by Australia.
To call the Games the best in history would be to forget the many scintillating tournaments of the past. But one thing is certain, it was one of the most enjoyable.
For the doom-mongers it must have been a difficult two weeks. The trains ran on time, the bus drivers mostly knew where they were going and virtually every event was a sell-out.
Who could forget the cheers when torch-bearer Cathy Freeman strode to victory in the 400m, to the relief of every Australian in the land?
Steve Redgrave's glorious fifth consecutive gold will similarly live long in the memory and one of the great track stars of the century Michael Johnson bade us farewell in inimitable style - with gold in the men's 400m.
'Happy' Games
If Atlanta is destined to forever be remembered as the year the Olympics died, then Sydney can be proud to have resurrected the event.
"These are the 'Happy Games'", I overheard one Scandinavian journalist saying to his colleague.
And who could disagree? Fifty thousand Australian volunteers managed to maintain a smile for two weeks, and - one Greek taxi driver and frustratingly rude Australian bus-driver excluding - the rest of Sydney seemed equally willing to join in the party.
Even the builders, who had kept the vast majority of my BBC colleagues awake during the first few nights of our stay, seemed to disappear from their scaffolding once the Games had begun.
Ask someone who was lucky enough to have attended - and I guarantee you will receive a positive response.
Apart from the somewhat bizarre and, in my humble opinion, wholly eccentric haggling over Olympic 'pins' (I am assured this goes on at every event), Sydney proved the perfect home for the event.
The weather, of course, helped. Despite some brief, if unforgettable showers, the sun mostly shone and the sharks even stayed away from the triathletes in Sydney Harbour.
The divers, sunk well below the surface and armed with special shark repellents, should be congratulated - though I remain unconvinced Australia's Great Whites would be tempted by humans so utterly devoid of body fat.
In every sense Sydney 2000 was a special occasion.
Women's water polo made a spectacular appearance - culminating in 'that' shot, when Australia's Yvette Higgins sank the USA with milliseconds remaining.
Unlikely heroes
Other sports, too, grabbed the headlines in ways one would previously have thought impossible.
Over 35 photographers attended the Greco-Roman wrestling final and the women's heavyweight weightlifting also proved a surprise hit with the public - no doubt to the astonishment of the organisers.
The Olympics found two unlikely heroes in Equatorial Guinea's Eric 'The Eel' Moussambani and Paula 'The Crawler' Barila Bolopa - who swam the slowest time in the Games' long and glorious history.
And in the surprise upset of the Games, Ian Thorpe, the man who could not be beaten, was defeated by rising Dutch star Pieter van den Hoogenband.
"This will be remembered as the benchmark for all other competitions," Team Australia's Lawrie Lawrence announced when we met outside the Olympic Stadium.
"I'm not saying that just because I'm an Aussie, I'm saying it because it's true."
One thing's for sure, Athens 2004 certainly has a lot to live up to.