Are we losing the Olympic spirit?

Are there some things in life, Sandel asks, to which we could attach a fee or price but should not, because in doing so we might actually devalue them? Is there more to measuring value than attaching a monetary cost?

We might apply Sandel's observations and questions to the modern Olympics.

Of course, ever since the introduction of professional sports in various national competitions, games of one kind or another have gradually been transformed into market commodities.

At the top-tier level, sporting competitions have been transformed from amateur pursuits, where the love of the game is all, into high-powered industries. Athletes are now but one part of a complex machine made up of event managers, player representatives and sports psychologists.

In some sports, athletes have become such a small part of the overall equation that they require ever more strident unions to represent their interests.

The Olympic Games are arguably just one part of this trend, but they are the standard bearer for what sport can and ought to be.

Sporting competition has an intrinsic value because it celebrates worthy human virtues such as the pursuit of excellence, focus under pressure, humility in victory and grace in defeat. These are just some of the values we hope our children will pick up from the first time they take part in a team or individual sport.

Increasingly attaching a monetary value to the Olympics – and by extension to the athletes who participate – devalues sport itself, especially as that financial value is becoming the prime marker of their worth.

The argument is made, of course, that huge investment is needed in providing infrastructure for competition and facilities for the hard-working athletes.

Yet money spent on providing facilities and support for athletes represents just a fraction of the investment in an Olympic competition. All manner of support 'industries' now suck up funds around the edges of the sport itself – including the huge industry that has grown up around the host auction process."

Driven by market pressures, host nations provide ever more elaborate opening and closing ceremonies, which people around the world often remember more than the iconic moments of competition.

Some emerging and former athletes fear that this 'circus element' of the Games is overshadowing the sport itself.

The Olympic Games will bring attention to London, at a time when the city and nation needs a boost in confidence. But the likelihood is that for us, as for most of the nations taking part, there will be a temporary spike in nationalistic spirit, plus a reminder that David very rarely defeats Goliath, especially where big money has been involved.