As Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown, the Olympics create as many losers as winners.

The athletes in Sochi might be the best in the world, but everything else associated with the 2014 Games smacks of hubris, corruption, nationalistic striving and cultural decadence.

When Toronto decided not to bid for the 2024 Olympics recently, many were tempted to see it as yet another sign of a city — and country — in the last gasp of terminal timidity. But maybe Toronto did the right thing, even if for the wrong reason. In the modern age, the Games are more about hunger for prestige than love of sport.

That’s why they end up in places like Beijing and Sochi, cities in countries desperate to show the world they are rich and powerful. In this sense, the action that matters — landing and running the Olympics — is over before the athletes ever arrive.

The Games are a parade of freakishly over-focused and over-developed athletes willing to risk everything for their 15 minutes. Still, the choice is theirs to make. And except for those pumped up on steroids, testosterone, human growth hormone and God-knows-what chemical cocktail, pretty harmless.

But when the czar, er, president of Russia, or the Chinese Politburo go after the Olympics, look out. Putin is said to have spent more than $50 billion on the Games that open on Feb. 7. Along the way, he has beggared his country and put in place a surveillance system that would make Big Brother drool with envy. To ensure success, the Russians have stored snow (Sochi is a Black Sea resort known for palm trees and warm weather), built highways and hotels and inflicted terrible damage on their environment.

Once the Olympics are over, Sochi will likely return to the obscurity from which it emerged after being chosen. Even during its 15 days of fame, no one watching will be fooled by the spectacle; the big story is the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

Canada is not Russia, of course, yet even here a contemporary Olympics turns into an orgy of waste and a nightmare of security. Who can forget the images of visitors struggling to take pictures of the Vancouver Olympic flame through chain-link fencing?

One shouldn’t confuse the Olympics with events such as Toronto’s most celebrated fiasco, the G20 meeting, but it’s hard not to conflate the two. After all, both are global showcases of idealism fuelled by massive state-funded displays of political paranoia.

The 2015 Pan Am Games are more our style. They’re cheaper and quieter, with much less at stake. Besides, the legacy will be decent — student housing in the West Don Lands and athletic facilities throughout the GTA. They won’t transform the city, but will leave it marginally better off. On the other hand, neither will they increase stress or debt.

The truth is that Toronto doesn’t need the Olympics, and wouldn’t know what to do with them even if they were handed to us on a silver platter. Yes, as a city we lack ambition and are all too willing to settle for mediocrity. But at this point, the Olympics — and similar international sporting events — are better suited to authoritarian regimes willing to squander billions in the vain hope these events will buy them global respectability.

Most agree the only city that managed to use the Olympics to its advantage was Barcelona in 1992. It’s hard to think of another example; many, like Montreal, end up with little to show but the bills, not the sort of record any city wants.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca