The Olympics

I’ve been a little disappointed in the references to the Olympics by my fellow bloggers. To be fair, my circle is mostly political so for many the Olympics may not even be on their radar. But at our house, the Olympics have dominated our evenings and weekends. Quite simply, we’re Olympics addicts.

My first memories of the Olympics were the 1984 games in Los Angeles. For years afterwards I dragged my official commerative beach towel to pools and beaches across the country, proudly sporting the big eagle that was the symbol of those games.

The first Olympics I remember being really engaged in were the 1988 Seoul games. Being 13 I was at a perfect age to become entranced by displays of sport. Luckily I had a mother and grandmother who were Olympics-obsessed and they passed the bug on to me. We watched every sport that we could on the television and even if it was something I would never be interested in normally, the prestige of the Olympics suddenly made it seem much more important.

My greatest memory of the Seoul games was the victory of the U.S. men’s volleyball team over the Soviet Union to win the gold medal. I think it would be difficult for people younger than myself, who don’t recall growing up in the shadow of the Cold War, to understand the significance of moments like these. The back-and-forth game was high-drama in prime time. Forgotten by many now, this was a BIG DEAL at the time. When we won I recall hearing cheers from my neighbors’ homes as well. That normally only happens during the NCAA basketball tournament and on Derby Day around here.

The magic of the Olympic games is obvious. It brings athletes from many countries together and gives them a stage on which to shine. At its best the Olympics prove that even poor athletes from tiny nations can rise above the well-funded stars of the largest and most powerful countries. At its lowest moments, the defeat of one of our fellow Americans can be heartbreaking, especially when you realize the amount of time and the number of dreams they have invested in their sport of choice. But that is the nature of competition and to love the Olympics is to love both the highs and the lows.

The Olympics are also wonderful in the way they give the host country a chance to shine, if only briefly. This year we saw perhaps the defining moment of modern China and it is surely the hope of everyone that the goodwill of these games will transform China for the better.

Another interesting aspect of the Olympics are that they can come to serve as reminders to how far a country has fallen. The war in Bosnia in the 1990′s were made all the more tragic when it was mentioned that they had hosted the winter games in 1984.

At the end of it all, as I watched moments of a grand closing ceremony last night, I was once again filled with a supreme love of the Olympic games. I thought about the best moments for Americans this year and of our saddest defeats. When framed together they paint a very real picture of the human condition and reminds us again that to love the Olympics, and ourselves, is to love both.