7th March 2013 09:27
Legacy. It is one of the great words of modern sport.
Never mind the here and now, and the mental and physical pursuit of winning a medal with the run or jump of your life...don't forget to think of the future at the same time.
At the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg, legacy was never on greater show.
And for the home nation, with that 'here and now' came both the past and the prospect of what lies in store, and just how brilliantly legacy can work.
Wandering around the Scandinavium Arena, Carolina Kluft could have been just another of the enthusiastic fans that made the weekend such a success. She is, of course, one of the greatest track and field athletes in history with her multiple successes on Olympic, World and European stage.
One of the meeting commentators was her former teammate Christian Olsson, who won the Olympic triple jump title in Athens in 2004, the same Games where his fellow Swede Stefan Holm soared to glory in the high jump.
Holm was here too, as one of the infield interviewers.
Inspiration for the host country wherever you looked...but then when the action began, the result of what these superstars such as these achieved in the last decade could be seen in the medallists of today - and tomorrow.
On the long jump runway, Michel Torneus won silver in a wonderful competition where he broke the national long jump record with 8.29m, while in the women's event his teammate Erica Jarder took bronze with a personal best leap of 6.71m.
In the high jump, Sweden won both silver and bronze behind Spain's Ruth Beitia as Ebba Jungmark was second and Emma Green Tregaro was third while Moa Hjelmer won bronze in the 400m and Abeba Aregawi stormed to victory in the 1500m.
Torneus is 26, Jungmark is 25, Green Tregaro is 28 and Jarder is 26. Field eventers who have emerged from an era growing up among some of Sweden's finest athletics moments, delivered by the Kluft, Olsson, Holm and Kasja Bergqvist, who won high jump gold at the European Athletics Championships in 2002 and World Championships in 2005.
The past achievements have given Sweden so much belief for the future.
The noise was electric when their new stars took to the track or prepared for their jump.
The reason was understandable: the crowd were not just here to wave and cheer a great performance, they were here to watch heroes they thought could make the podium.
That is the extent of the legacy around Swedish athletics now - an expectation of reaching the highest standards and that standard then being met.
What was equally noticeable each day at the arena were the amount of children under 10 who were glued to the action.
Many arrived wearing yellow and blue clothes, others had their hair dyed in their home colours and such was the noise before Torneus jumped, that there was no doubt about which name would be on the agenda in the school playground on Monday morning.
But that inspiration goes beyond just working for those from the home country.
When Sergey Mudrov, of Russia, won the high jump, he was delighted to say that he has a new friend in Stefan Holm who had closely watched his exploits.
While at the finale of both the women's pentathlon and the men's heptathlon, all the athletes - not just the medallists - went on a lap of honour.
That was a tradition started by Kluft, who ruled the multi-events scene with nine gold medals between 2002 and 2007, an incredible record including the Olympic title in 2004.
Yes, the same year that Olsson and Holm also delivered their glory.
And whose legacy could be seen in a weekend in Göteborg which live long in the memory.