Many Londoners, however, feel trepidation rather than excitement ahead of the big deadline. Unseasonal weather combined with austerity policies introduced by a government struggling to cope with an ailing economy may have dampened enthusiasm for the Games, estimated to cost the tax payers at least 9 billion pounds. But, increasingly, there is also a sense that the corporatization and militarization of the games are taking some of the shine off of competitive sportsmanship.

With İstanbul now a serious contender for the 2020 Summer Games, after its four previous failed bids, the London experiment is worth following closely. Sports and money go hand in hand: This is nothing new, nor is it limited to the Olympics. The recent football match-fixing debacle in Turkey was a good reminder of what is at stake beyond the action in the field.

Seen by host countries as a prestigious showcase of their capabilities, the Olympics have gradually become flashier and bigger. Corporate influence has also increased as large companies shoulder a growing share of the total cost. We are so used to seeing major advertisers sponsoring sporting events that we no longer see irony in the fact that giants like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, not necessarily associated with healthy living, are key funders of events that are supposed to inspire the next generation of athletes. Growing public pressure is now forcing some of these companies to forego Olympic tax breaks.

In London, unprecedented measures have been taken to ensure that the sponsors’ interests are protected and only approved products and logos enter the Olympic Village. “Brand police officers” have even been deployed around the country, empowered to fine unauthorized businesses seeking to capitalize on the Games. Companies not involved in the Olympics are even banned from using words as benign as “gold,” “silver,” “bronze” or “summer” to promote their products or services.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin had lofty ideals of fair competition and amateur sportsmanship when he founded the International Olympic Committee in 1898. These days, the Olympics are big business. International politics have also often interfered. In 1936, Hitler planned to turn the Berlin games into a demonstration of the superiority of the Aryan race, only to see the legendary African American runner Jesse Owens win four gold medals.

These days, security is an obvious concern at any international event, let alone one on the scale of the Olympic Games. But many in Britain resent the stringent measures introduced to prevent attacks. Residents protested when anti-aircraft missiles were positioned on top of apartment blocks. Seventeen-thousand soldiers will be deployed on the streets of the British capital for the first time since World War II, together with 12,000 police officers, while fighter jets and helicopters patrol the airspace.

Three-thousand five-hundred additional troops, many of them fresh out of Afghanistan, had to be drafted in at the last minute when security firm G4S, commissioned to provide thousands of security officers, admitted it had failed to hire enough staff. At a time when budget cuts are affecting the army and the police force, this failure has been widely criticized.

As Londoners brace themselves for traffic congestion and inevitable transport delays, it is worth sparing a thought for the impact that hundreds of thousands of additional visitors would have on İstanbul if its 2020 Olympic bid succeeds. The London games are meant to leave a lasting legacy in an area of the British capital that was largely underdeveloped. However, with jobs in scarce supply, it remains to be seen if the Games will lead to genuine social and economic transformation in East London.

Most of these concerns will hopefully be swept aside when the competition begins, and sports fans around the world will get a chance to celebrate the athletes’ achievements.