BARON Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, said: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

Great sentiments. What happened?

All the major world nations will be competing to win and some of their athletes will not be above using drugs to enhance their performance.

It is also unfortunate that the cost of the London Games has grown like Topsy since they were first priced at £2.4 billion.

This had jumped to £9.3 billion by 2007, then a Government committee said it would be closer to £11 billion and a Sky Sports investigation, that included public transport upgrade costs, has suggested it could top £24 billion. All this as Britannia struggles to keep her head above the tide of recession.

But let’s put money aside. Let’s put aside the debate about whether the Olympics will actually result in the beneficial regeneration of areas of the capital. Londoners themselves have been highly critical. Let’s put aside the looming debacle of four-hour queues at Heathrow immigration gates.

Let’s be positive. Let’s look at how: “Eight thousand inspirational people will carry the Olympic Flame as it journeys across the UK. Nominated by someone they know, it will be their moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide.”

And now let’s see how many put their torches and track suits up for sale on eBay.

The gas-powered torches cost £495 to make but torch-bearers can buy theirs for £215 each. Which is not a bad deal if they can sell them on an internet auction site for a few thousand quid. Most of the runners will be keeping their torches but a few have already devalued the concept by offering them to the highest bidder at usually between £4,000 and £6,000.

One optimist put a price tag of £112,000 on his torch. Mind you, he did say 10% would go to charity and that postage was free. He had no takers.

A few of those putting them up for sale have vowed to give all the proceedings to charity.

A Huddersfield runner offered 10%. Most don’t mention charity at all. It obviously begins at home.

And why, if the Olympic spirit means anything at all, did American hip-hop star Will.i.am get a spot jogging through Taunton with a torch in one hand, his mobile phone in the other while he sent messages to Twitter, all with a silly grin on his face.

One of his tweets read: “Thank you Coca Cola for this once in a life time experience to run the torch.”

Which says it all. Because the sporting ideal seems to have come second to commercial exploitation.

The biggest shopping mall in Europe has been built at a cost of £1.8 billion alongside the Olympic Park. Visitors arriving for the games at Stratford railway station will have to walk through it, past the delights of Primark and Top Shop, before they get to see any athletics.

For let us not forget the Olympic Games are one of the most effective international marketing platforms in the world, reaching billions of people in over 200 countries and territories throughout the world.

And those are not my words. They come from the Olympic organisation.

Which is why those old world favourites Coca Cola, McDonalds, Panasonic, Visa and Samsung are among the sponsors for a 16-day event in July and August that shouldn’t need hype but has been hyped to the heavens in the pursuit of financial return.

Now, remind me again, what was the Olympic ideal?