The best of mankind - Telegraph As the floats carrying 800 athletes from the Olympic and Paralympic Games neared Buckingham Palace yesterday, the cheering took on a particularly heartfelt tone, for in the crowd were 14,000 of the volunteers who in so large a measure had made this sporting summer what it was. Indeed, the volunteers and the military were the two groups whose mention had brought the loudest applause from those in the crowd during these remarkable Games. Lord Coe, at the closing of the Paralympics on Sunday, quoted an Olympic volunteer, a doctor, who'd been on duty after the terrorist bombings of July 7, 2005. "I've seen the worst of mankind," he said, "and now I've seen the best of mankind." For once, in a nation that has acquired a habit of hearing speeches with a certain cool cynicism, many a silent tear welled up at the recognition that these words were true.