Have the Olympics outlived their usefulness? It is time to ask that question seriously. The upcoming games in Salt Lake in February will be a time of flag waving in this country in light of world affairs, but at what cost in dollars and risks.

The Salt Lake Olympic committee, concerned about security before September 11, is now asking the Federal government for tens of millions of dollars more to create the fortress that will be necessary in an attempt to make the games secure.

Those dollars are to be added to the hundreds of millions already spent. That includes the millions that have gone the way of corruption and payoffs in Utah; just as such dollars have gone the corruption route in other games in other countries.

It’s not the events related to September 11 that give rise to issues of the Olympics continuation, but the dangers and risks highlighted by all that’s happened since that date have added cause to give the Olympics a reality check.

Perhaps no group lives the life of luxury with less accountability than the International Olympic Committee. You name a perk available to humans and they have it, no matter what the cost. From their headquarters unfolds a world wide web of tangled money grubbing.

Cities vie for the right to hold the games and in turn spend millions of dollars, largely to benefit the egos of the local Olympic committees. Those members stuff away their own share of the perks while waving the flag of whatever country their in, declaring what a good deed we do.

Decades after the games have come and gone, cities like Montreal still suffer the financial burdens, paying for them with current tax dollars. Athens is preparing for the next summer games and it is another immense blunder in the making.

They are woefully behind in the construction of sites. Corruption appears to be rampart. Athens officials have been told to get their act together or they could lose the Games. That means more corruption and more dollars being spent as the Greek government rushes to complete the tasks.

The ultimate issue regarding the Olympics is: all this for what? The idea of the world’s best athletes competing against one another is a worthy objective. However, the Olympics have become a political monster in that regard.

The athletes competing, save for a few, are professionals making a living off their sport and using the Olympics to raise their names and their bank accounts. The games have become the world’s biggest showcase for athletes and their agents, all at the expense of taxpayers around the world.

The athletes work out year-round in the best of tax payer-built training facilities, their “expenses” covered by national Olympic committees who get direct tax dollars or indirect tax breaks to exist.

Olympic staffers at every level fan the flames of patriotism around the world to keep the world’s public footing the bill and the medal count the most important outcome of any Olympics.

Let the professional sports create their own world games. Baseball, hockey, track and field, tennis and any other sport can do so, and have in the past. These games would be privately run and funded. Issues then become business decision and if the demand isn’t there to fund such games, there is no reason for taxpayers to foot a bill so they can play on a world stage.

If there are enough true amateurs left, let the Olympics exist for them, with all funding being private. That would substantially reduce the number of unmotivated Olympic officials everywhere who live off the lamb and bring to the Olympics persons motivated by an interest in amateur sports.

Yes, this is a case of going back to the future. Events of the present have made that trip look all the more reasonable.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.