I’m not sure how long the feelgood factor is going to last, but I still have an extra spring in my step after Team GB’s massive success in the Olympic Games.

And when I watched them return from Rio last week, including Swindon swimmer and double silver medallist Jazz Carlin, I was struck by something all of our team had in common.

Whereas we used to think that you had to be ruthless, selfishly single-minded and sometimes even a little bit nasty to come home with a medal, did you notice that - and without exception - Team GB weren’t like that at all?

In fact, they came across as decent, intelligent, likeable people, the kind you would be more than happy to have as next door neighbours. They may have been world beaters, but they were all NICE.

And that should be really encouraging for all of us who are nice guys ourselves.

Despite their stunning achievements, they were also remarkably modest, with many wearing expressions that said: “Is this really happening to me?” and anxious to blurt out long lists of people who had helped them win, from Lottery ticket buyers to coaches, but never with any ego.

Even the ones who should be used to winning by now were thrilled with their success.

Take Nicola Adams, the boxer, who has done it all before, having won in London too. She was still bouncing around the ring after the bell, smiling from ear to ear. I bet she hasn’t stopped smiling for four years.

Then there was Laura Trott and Jason Kenny, the cycling couple who will have a house full of gold medals to dust when they get married.

How did such a lovely couple get to the very top of a sport that is so competitive that its would-be champions previously resorted to cheating and lying to win?

Neither was all this niceness confined to just the human members of Team GB.

I’m thinking of Valegro the wonder horse, who carried Charlotte Dujardin to gold in the dressage.

In my experience, horses are liable to kick, bite and make a mess on the floor.

But not him. He was so perfectly behaved and such an ambassador of the Team GB ethos that I will have to have a word with my MP if he doesn’t get something in the New Year’s Honours.

Nobody else seems to have picked up on all this, but I think there are lessons to be learned.

To be not just a winner, but a world beater, it is no longer a disadvantage to be likeable, but probably now an essential qualification.

You might think this sounds like an idealistic take on the Games, and obviously there is much more to it than that, but it can’t be a coincidence that every British medal winner, across all those different sports, turned out to be inherently nice.

And if that principle of superior humanity and humility is good enough for Team GB, shouldn’t it also be good enough for a lot of other people too?

But I’m not just talking about sport.

Why don’t we extend the idea that you can be nice and still be a winner to other walks of life, starting with education, employment and business? Even politics.

If winning is now for nice people, let’s make sure the hard-nosed, hard-headed, hard-hearted duffers on the team get booted off.

As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not like Team GB these days, you must be a loser.