So the Beijing Games are on, even though it seems hardly a minute since 2004. The Athens Games were a long-awaited return to the country of origin, but the Beijing Games are more about politics: China is showing its friendly socialist face in an effort to make the wider world forget inconveniences like its treatment of the Tibetans, the Taiwanese, and a few million domestic Christians.
Sport, with its tribal appeal and its effect on adrenalin, is a great distraction of the bread and circuses kind. Then there's the patriotic angle: how many medals can each athlete collect? How many tears will be shed during the playing of the national anthems?
And let us not forget the money: the IOC stands to make about three billion dollars, 8 per cent of which will be spent on IOC staff members.
Another minute and London 2012 will be upon us. And what's this? Talk of a Brisbane bid for 2020 or 2024! One wonders why, really: the Modern Olympics have changed their nature so much since 1896. They've changed drastically since the 1956 Games in Melbourne.
I was a biddable child at that time, but I fell into a fit of pique when my parents refused to let me go on the school excursion. We were then living a good 250 miles from Melbourne, but how could I forego the chance to see Betty Cuthbert run?
I sulked, but soon recovered when I found Mum practically leaping around the kitchen in a state of high glee shortly after the broadcast of the women's 100 m freestyle swimming final.
'It's all-Aussie, and a world-record,' she warbled. 'Fraser, Crapp and Leech. Teenagers! That's shown the world!'
Other great Australian names marked Melbourne: veteran Shirley Strickland, Murray Rose. In a more innocent, amateur, and presumably drug-free age, Melbourne was called the Friendly Games.
But the Cold War was at its most frigid, and the Hungarian uprising had spiralled down into defeat a mere ten days before. Tensions ran predictably high, so high that the water-polo match between the Hungarians and the Soviets came to be known as the Blood in the Water match. Hungary went on to win the gold medal, and at the end of the Games, 56 Hungarians out of the squad of 113 remained Down Under.
The innocence of the Olympics was chipped away, I suppose, over the years, but finally died