It was an image to crown Team GB’s renewed command of Olympic waters. While his crewmates gulped for breath, trying to master the elating mixture of adrenaline and sheer exhaustion, the men’s eight cox, Harry Brightmore, leapt up in the stern of their boat. He punched the air, removed his cap and flung it away. This had been yet another epic run for the line, channelling legends of yore while consigning recent years’ frustrations to ancient history.

“An absolutely fantastic regatta. It’s good to be back from Tokyo,” said Louise Kingsley, the director of performance. She had watched Brightmore and his teammates win the country’s third gold here and the eighth medal of any hue. They had raced straight after a women’s eight that took bronze and the week finished with only the Netherlands, neck and neck rivals throughout, matching the British haul of podium finishes.

“Internally, this is right up the top end of where our expectations have been,” Kingsley said, although she could not resist pointing out things could have been even better. The Dutch, for example, pipped them in the gold tally, four to three.

“We’re greater than the sum of the parts,” she said. “There was a lot of change. Change the staff, change the morale, change the budget, change the structure and reshape the whole thing.”

Nothing could better sum up the extraordinary physical sacrifice required to summon those history-making extra hundredths of a second than the sight of Rory Gibbs, one of the world-beating eight, taking assistance in the medical tent after a gargantuan push in the last 850 metres saw off another strong Netherlands challenge. His colleague Morgan Bolding had needed to be helped from the boat. They had put everything out there and the feeling was euphoric.

“My ears are popping, my senses are shot right now, just trying to stay on two feet,” said the 30-year-old Gibbs, who did not seem to mind all that much. “That probably is the end of my career and I’m very proud of that. I can’t see ever pushing myself that hard again.”

The display of exuberance had been left to Brightmore, who explained it felt cathartic. “That meant everything,” he said. “It’s a multitude of very different things. It’s the demons of Tokyo, the internal ruthless process of our crew and our goals.”

He was not the only cox to be on top of the world. In steering the women’s eight, Henry Fieldman became the first Olympic athlete to win a medal in events for both sexes. Fieldman was in the men’s boat that took bronze in Japan and the significance only sank in when he was informed of his place in history. “It’s been a real joy, the honour of my life,” he said.

It has been the richest of regattas for human stories among a team more than happy to tell them. Tom Ford was preparing for the men’s race when his sister, Emily, helped the women to third place behind Canada and a dominant Romania. “We saw on the big screen when we were warming up,” he said. “I gave myself a little fist-pump but kept it to myself.”

The Cheshire-born siblings followed in the footsteps of their older brothers John and Ed, who were national junior level rowers, in taking up the sport and they have leaned on one another in Paris.

“We know each other inside out,” Emily said. “We’ve been with each other through the ups and downs. The other day we didn’t have such a good session and I just spoke to Tom and he said: ‘Don’t worry about it, it’ll come together.’ And it did.”

That goes for the broader achievement of recording comfortably Team GB’s best result since London 2012. A squad packed with Olympic debutants is surely destined for a bright future but has hungrily fed from past glories.

There was barely a dry eye among the men’s eight in their team meeting on Wednesday when Steve Trapmore, their coach, showed a video montage of messages from all of the crew that had won gold in their event at Sydney 2000.

Trapmore was in that boat and knew what buttons to press. “Each one of them had something that resonated with one of us,” said another of the new gold medallists, Jacob Dawson. “Told us how to be fierce in the race, don’t give an inch, you can be a gentlemen after the race. The 2k is not the time to be a good sportsman. It really did kick us into gear and brought another level in the last few days.”

Kingsley pressed home the point that the hard work fuelling such a dramatic turnaround comes without elements of the budget, particularly in terms of athletes’ bonuses, enjoyed by some of their competitors. Sponsorship is lacking and extra funds could help brighten that aureate shine in Los Angeles.

On Saturday night, the rowing delegation were due to attend a party in their honour at Team GB house, the temporary hospitality base at Pavillon d’Armenonville. When the giddiness has subsided to a warm afterglow of satisfaction, the meetings around how this phoenix-like rebirth can become jet-propelled will doubtless begin in earnest. But this was a day to bottle up the sensations created by succeeding in the challenge of a lifetime.

“I’d love to do this for ever,” Tom Ford said. “Moments like this are like no other. You have to enjoy it because it might not ever happen again.”

He and his remarkable class of 2024 have, though, proved history can repeat itself.