Mauroo is a boyish-looking 35, and his 11 years’ service for the public broadcaster makes him something of a veteran. But his sterling service at the Olympics wasn’t something you would have predicted. He started off as a general reporter, which means anything that isn’t court cases or politics, later becoming an aerospace specialist, on everything from airlines to spaceships.

Yet his training was in Germanic languages and literature (including English), which he studied in Leuven. After graduating, he studied journalism at the Vlekho in Brussels. At Vlekho, he interned for a time at Radio 1.

His English training seems to have served him well in London, though it didn’t – despite much effort – snag him an interview with mayor Boris Johnson (who used to be a correspondent in Brussels, when the shoe was on the other foot). Mauroo did, though, soak up the atmosphere of the Games, not only in the stadiums – where he convinced a British journalist to become a fan of Flemish hurdler Elodie Ouedraogo – but out on the streets.

Mauroo is from West Flanders originally (and moved back to live near Ypres despite working for the VRT in Brussels), so he has cycling in his blood. All the more reason to respect the London cyclist, who comes in many shapes, he reported, but who all have one thing in common: “A wild look in the eyes, telling me that their one and only goal was to survive the jungle of London traffic.”

His next project, after the Games? “The start of the great commemoration of the centenary of the First World War in 2014.”