The perennial debate on whether sport and politics should be mixed has been reignited in the past 48 hours with the protests at the Olympic torch relay in London and Paris. More protests seem inevitable as the symbol makes its way to China.

Like many I suspect, the images set my mind running on an evaluation of the real issues at hand. This wasn't a collision between mutually exclusive agendas of sport and politics - this was a reflection of the human condition itself.

Ironically, ‘human conditioning' is a vital part of an athlete's life. It determines their physical and psychological preparedness for the challenges and exertions ahead of them, be it on a rugby field, badminton court or racetrack. As such, it is an intrinsic element of sport.

Are we being realistic if we expect professional or international sport to be elevated onto a higher plane, one which is the manufactured preserve of the elite performer, to be viewed from afar? Or should we accept that if sport is a crucible of all the human frailties, and is richer for it, then it is accessible at all levels, whatever the agendas that may intertwine.

But have sport and politics ever been separate? Or more pertinently, sport and money? And if sport reflects the best of human values, surely the reverse must be true as well? Sport is a prism through which the full panoply of the human condition is viewed. Victory and defeat, ambition and rivalry, the competitive instinct - and yes, greed, envy, deceit and all the trappings of human existence. Not just in the participants, but those who live vicariously by their achievements and failures.

That has always been sport's blessing and burden. And the reason that participant, spectator, sponsor, journalist and politician are so inexorably drawn to the arena. The Romans used sport to entertain the populace, sate their appetites and court popularity - the show was grand, the Emperors benign and the business healthy for the ringmasters. Have we come that far since the days of the Colosseum (granted, without the bloodshed)?

Sport has provided history with the stage, not the reverse. The best thing that sport can be is unpredictable, just like the human condition. And it continues to live up to its billing.