We are a nation totally transfixed by the gold rush in Rio. Even those who normally would not cross the lounge to switch on to sport are captivated by the most successful overseas Olympics in British sporting history, a success which has lifted the many clouds over Rio as far as the UK public is concerned.

Those media pundits who usually cock a snoot at sport when reviewing the papers on the box are becoming positively orgasmic when drooling over a British medal haul which seems to require an abacus to keep count.

In essence, our sport has never had it so good - except for English football, that is.

It takes a lot to knock the start of the Premier League season off the back pages but Britain’s Olympians are achieving this virtually on a daily basis.

But it is not just the number of medals that have enraptured us back home, but the manner in which they have been achieved and the demeanour of the achievers, especially in sports like trampolining which rarely hit the headlines.

The comparison with football was aptly emphasised by Kelvin MacKenzie’s column in The Sun this week.

Now I rarely agree with what the former editor of that organ has to say but he makes a fine point.

“Dignified, modest and successful...if only footie stars were like athletes" is the headline above his typically trenchant piece.

“I so love our Olympic athletes and so hate our English footballers,” he declares.

“When they [the Olympians] appear in front of the cameras they weren’t conceited but considered.

“Watching the Olympics has been an absolute joy.

“Contrast the intelligence of our Olympians and the success that came with that of the England football ‘stars.’

“Overpaid. Overpampered and unfortrunately over here. Thick as you like.

“Awful in Brazil for the World Cup and even worse in France for the Euros.

“The only commitment footballers have is to their absurd pay packets, their haircuts and the latest shirt collar fashion.”

He goes on: ”I was particularly taken by the unassuming Bryony Page, who won silver in the trampoline. It emerges that she has a first in biology. What a talent.

“When she completed her performance she wept. She wept again when given her medal and we wept with her.

“How lucky we are to have the Bryony Pages of this world representing our nation.

“I can only hope that Jack Wilshere and his dim chums can learn from Team GB’s dignity and good manners...and success.

“You wouldn’t bet on it, would you?”

Afraid not, Kelvin.

You see from tennis to golf, athletics to gymnastics, cycling to canoeing, diving to dressage, rowing to swimming, British competitors seem to have strived in Rio to be at the pinnacle of their sport and revel in each other’s successes.

It is called momentum - and we’re not simply talking Mo Farah here.

Even superstars like Farah, Andy Murray, Jess Ennis-Hill and Sir Bradley Wiggins who have done all the podium-stepping before seem touched by the togetherness that exists within Team GB where success has bred even more success.

As golden golfer Justin Rose says, they are just proud to be part of it all.

Okay, so we are told repeatedly that the continuing cascade of gold, silver and bronze is all down to Lottery funding. So praise be to Sir John Major, who I believe would have made a better Sports Minister than he did a Prime Minister.

It was his Government’s decision to funnel Lottery cash into sport in 1998 that is now paying off so spectacularly.

Back in 1996, pre-Lottery funding, Britain spent £20 million ($26 million/€23 million) and got just 15 medals in Atlanta.

At London 2012 that figure had escalated to £265 million ($344 million/€305 million), which helped the team to a record 65 medals.

It Rio its £274 million ($356 million/€316 million) which has so far produced not only an unprecedented shoal of bullion across the board but a new record or two almost every day.

So you might say that money is the root of all winners.

The Lottery - and Treasury - millions that many other nations can only dream about have not only helped make Britain’s Olympians professional in every sense but, equally important, it has enabled our coaches to become more professional, too.

It is estimated that every GB medal in Rio has cost around £5 million ($6.5 million/€5.7 million). Worth it?

Well many will argue that it is for the current national feel-good-factor alone.

Of course it is not just hard cash, but hard work that has put GB deservedly on the podium so consistently.

As Lord Coe had forecast, once the running, jumping, sploshing and splashing got under way Rio’s many crises were more or less forgotten and the focus was on competition and the “extraordinary human endeavour” that accompanies it.

By the way, Coe’s International Association of Athletics Federation had been the only governing body to ban drugs-infested Russia so how ironic that Russia’s former, and now rather portly, Olympic sprint champion Valeriy Borzov  was selected to make the medal presentation not just to Usain Bolt but runner-up and double drugs cheat Justin Gatlin.

Supported by the whimsically smiling Coe himself. Funny old Games, eh?

But a marvellous one for Team GB.

All this and I doubt I am alone in still not understanding the omnium.

So enough for now.

Shhhh...I’m about to watch the modern pentathlon!