I WROTE most of this article a couple of months ago – well before the final rounds of pre-Games activations and ad campaigns that have filled the media space in recent weeks.
Despite the plethora of messages – old and new – to emerge from the private sector supporters of the Games, nothing has changed my mind about their contribution to what might be termed the “legacy question”.
Let me elaborate. In May, I came across a newspaper story announcing the opening of the UK's first hospital ward dedicated to British teenagers seeking "extreme weight loss". According to the article, one third of our 10-11 year olds are obese. One would have hoped with the Olympics just around the corner we would be ideally placed to "Inspire a Generation" to get themselves fit and healthy.
However, studies show that since 2005, participation levels amongst young people has actually decreased.
The usual target of this fury is the Government, and often rightly so given successive administrations' decisions to sell off playing fields and downgrade the importance of PE in the curriculum.
But, shouldn't we also be looking at another group of interested parties and asking them about their intentions to continue the Olympic values in the UK once the glitz and glamour have rolled out of town in September?
I'm talking about the sponsors.
Visit any London 2012 sponsor website and there is endless copy about how they're contributing to the Olympics, how this Summer's Games will be the most sustainable ever or how they can get you closer to the Greatest Show on Earth.
With very few exceptions there is virtually nothing which looks beyond the Games, much less which seeks to redress worrying social trends. The big announcements on corporate legacy may still be in the pipeline but you get the feeling that once the curtain comes down on London, it's either "job done" or next stop, Sochi.
The London Games will benefit from around £700m of corporate investment – a phenomenal sum – and it begs the question of whether these companies are driving the optimal return from simply focussing on the build up and the Games itself.
Many London 2012 sponsors are British companies and all of them have business interests in the United Kingdom.
Using the Olympics to help to address real life problems would be a wonderful legacy and a decent payback for the public funding which has provided them a global platform to market their products. Wouldn't it be a better story for all of us if the Olympics was just the launchpad?
By Ben Wells, senior consultant at The Sports Consultancy
Follow Ben on Twitter: @Ben_Wells1