In the end even the history-maker was impressed by what he had done.
Eight gold medals around his neck, the expectations of the watching world fulfilled, Michael Phelps finally escaped his own reserve and, like a little boy lost in the enormity of his achievement, he shed a tear.
It was small one, no doubt, but then this giant of an Olympian has shown over nine days in Beijing he is at his best when dealing in the tiniest of fractions. 2.32, 0.08, 1.89, 0.67, 5.14, 2.29, 0.01 and 0.7, to be precise.
Add all those numbers together - the winning margins of Phelps' eight gold medal performances - and it comes to 13.1 seconds; the time it has taken to read this far into this story. Such is the difference between the mundane and the magnificent, between those destined for the footnotes and those who write the history.
Will anyone remember the names of those who won silver? It is not a question meant to demean the achievements of the talented athletes who trailed behind in Phelps' wake but merely an attempt to convey the scale of his achievement. At a meeting of involving hundreds of swimmers, he is king. In a village of 10,000 athletes, he is God. After 104 years of the modern Olympic movement, he is The One; the only man to win eight gold medals at a single games.
The last of those medals came earlier today when he helped the US squad to victory in the men's 4x100m individual medley, a victory that carried Phelps past the record of his countryman Mark Spitz, who won seven golds at Munich in 1972. The Australian quartet were momentarily in front, but only for as long as it took for Phelps to turn Antipodean hope into despair, to turn American trepidation into a star-spangled moment for the ages. "We are all proud to be a part of something as special as this," said the freestyler Jason Lezak, who was handed a lead after Phelps' 100m butterfly leg and brought the American squad home.
"This is all a dream," said Phelps himself. "I just saw my mom and my sister, and we all had a little cry together."
Yet if his team-mates were quick to eulogise, and the man himself sought refuge from the tumult in the arms of his family, it took the Australian swimmer Leisel Jones to capture fully what the world had just witnessed. Asked what was her biggest thrill of the 2008 Olympic Games, she was in no doubt: "To be here in Beijing when Michael Phelps won his eight gold medals."
This from a woman who had just won two gold medals of her own. And it is not just in Beijing that Phelps has stopped the clocks. Across the United States, he has turned a nation obsessed with baseball into a nation obsessed with events at China's National Aquatic Centre. Saloon bar televisions have been tuned to nothing else. Subway conversations, too.
Even play at Yankee Stadium in New York has been interrupted in recent days for announcements on his progress towards his target of eight golds. Suffice to say, he gave them all quite a show.
Of course, none of his eight victories could sensibly be described as routine, but six of them could be described as being comfortable. The remaining two - in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and the 100m butterfly - were searing in their intensity and heart-stopping as they reached their climax. Even now, despite being confronted with clear evidence to the contrary, there are some who believe that Serbia's Milorad Cavic was robbed when the stop clock showed him finishing one-hundredth of a second behind the American in Saturday's 100m butterfly final.
Let the conspiracists chatter amongst themselves while the rest can be satisfied by underwater photographs showing Phelps' fingers pressed firmly against the finishing wall as Cavic's fall graspingly short. The Serbian swimmer's disappointment must be crushing but, as consolations go, it is quite something to have come closer than anyone else to denying the greatest swimmer in history that which he desired most of all.
A minor star when he left for Beijing earlier this month, the 23-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland, will now return to the States as a superstar. Tom Cruise with size 14 feet. Tiger Woods in a skin-tight swimsuit. Some might fear for a young man in such circumstances but they need fear nothing when it comes to Phelps, because what made him unstoppable in the Beijing's National Aquatic Centre is what will protect him from the sharks now circling his life and career. "He is a nice guy, a good bloke," said the two-time Olympic champion Grant Hackett of Australia. "Over the last few years I have seen him a lot and he hasn't changed one bit. That is a good thing, believe me."
Few who had watched Phelps comport himself with quiet dignity as history beckoned would doubt Hackett's words, just as few would doubt that we have not seen the last of him yet.
After four years preparing for Beijing he will now take a short holiday before heading back to Baltimore to "hang out" with the friends he made when he was at high school. No doubt there will television appearances and more sponsorship deals than any athlete would ever want. He is rich beyond his dreams now, more famous than anyone would want to be, but when all is said and done he remains an athlete. And an ambitious one at that.
"Bob my coach wants to start afresh. He wants us to try things we have never tried before," he said when asked what his plans were for London 2012. "It should be a fun four years." For him and for us.
