The Olympic Games are arguably the world’s premiere athletic and cultural event.

They are a two-week party of glitz and gluttony, where the world’s elite on the field of play – and in the bank – gather to partake in every bit of glamor and culture the host city has to offer.

The Olympics have become a modern day moon-race, where there is always a guaranteed winner.

Who can be the greenest (Sydney)? Who can have the most spectacular opening ceremony (Beijing)? Who can have the prettiest facilities (Beijing)?

Or my personal favorite, who can spend the most money (every host after Beijing)?

Beijing spent a record $43 billion U.S. to construct and host the 2008 Summer Games, and that was with a Communist government without anything approaching U.S. labor laws.

London, the site of the 2012 Games, is on pace to surpass Beijing’s mark, and there are still three more years for the price tag to rise.

According to the (London, UK) Daily Mail, the cost is nearly 10 times the cost the city submitted – �2.4 billion UK – to the International Olympic Committee when it was awarded the Games in 2005.

On Friday, the IOC will announce which candidate city – Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo or Rio de Janeiro – “won” the right to host the 2016 games.

I, for one, am praying – for the love of God – it isn’t Chicago.

I attended the 1996 Games in Atlanta and it remains one of my fondest memories. Brazil versus Nigeria in soccer in Sanford Stadium, gymnastics in the Georgia Dome and badminton at Georgia State University Auditorium.

Classic, once-on-a-lifetime experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything.

However, times have changed, and the Olympics need to be judged for what they truly are: a costly and unnecessary burden to our nation’s fragile economy.

In case you missed it, our national debt equals more than $11 trillion. Twelve zeros. And of that national debt, more than $800 billion is owed to China.

I’m sure the Chinese, who have expressed concern on multiple occasions about the receding U.S. economy, would be thrilled to give us more money to host the Olympics. Maybe they would be willing to throw in cheap labor while they are at it.

Need another example of how bad our economy is?

The World Bank announced on Monday that the U.S. dollar is facing the real possibility of being demoted as the dominant reserve currency of the organization for the first time since pre-World War II.

“The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar’s place as the world’s predominant reserve currency,” World bank president Robert Zoellick told the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.

He added, “looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar.”

One of those options – surprise, surprise – is the Chinese yuan.

As President Barack Obama embarks on a trip to Denmark in an attempt to convince the IOC why Chicago should win the Games, I hope he remembers his primary obligation; to best serve the citizens of the United States of America.

And that is not winning a party with a $40 billion price tag.

Sure, our president is beloved worldwide – France’s version of “Newsweek” had him on the cover for a month after his election.

Sure, Chicago is his “adopted” home and the sappy story lines would be endless.

And sure, the Olympics will bring an economic boom to the U.S. – and will give Chicago a nice face lift – but will it offset a price tag of $40 to $50 billion?

Doubtful.

Athens, Greece spent roughly $13 billion -nearly one fifth of the country’s GDP – to host the 2004 Games and is still struggling to pay off the debt.

It had hoped to see a boom in tourism similar to that of Barcelona, Spain in 1992. But instead, it has slumped like Montreal, Canada in 1976. It took three decades for the city to finally pay off the debt, which was nothing compared to what Greece is burdened with.

The Summer Games, which are far more popular than the Winter Games, are also much more expensive.

The last two Winter Games – Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin, Italy in 2006 – cost a combined $5 billion. And the 2010 Vancouver Games are projected to cost $1.6 billion.

Now is not the time.

Let’s work on our internal problems, like health care or the economy, before we spend money we don’t have on hosting a party we can crash for free.

- Michael Fitzpatrick is the opinions editor of The Red & Black