The Olympics Are Here!

Every four years, we witness the Summer Olympics.  This is not a minor event, but since the games were adapted to the modern nations by France in 1894 it has become one of the few bright moments of the world in a place where we focus on what is negative and what is going wrong.

This does not mean that the Olympic Games have not been silenced on occasion or been marred by violence.  Three times we have seen the Olympics fail to be held due to World War, once in 1916 and then again in 1940 and 1944, events commemorated in the final jog of the torch around the stadium by two symbolic falls (or in this case, two pauses as the eras go forward).  Twice more, acts of terrorism have stained the games; the first being the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists belonging to the group Black September in Munich.  The second was 1996 in Atlanta when a bomb by Eric Rudolph killed 2 and injured 111 people.

But despite these five events, the Olympic Games are a time quite unlike any other.  Some ask me why I look forward to the Summer Olympics every four years, and aside from the fact I'm not big on the winter sports, the reason I do is because of this peculiar time.  For seventeen days, the world's nations send representatives to fight not in a field of battle and not in a way that will lead to death, but rather a battle of wills, skill, and endurance.

Instead of killing one another, sport takes center place, even when there are opposing nations at war which are represented.  This was well demonstrated during the last Summer Olympiad when Russia was invading the South Ossetia region of the smaller nation of Georgia.  The 10 meter air pistol shooting competition silver and bronze medal winners were from those two nations.   Nino Salukvadze from Georgia won the bronze medal and  Natalia Paderina of Russia won the silver medal and as the two ascended the stand and received their medals.  Then afterward, they did something completely unexpected as citizens of warring nations, they embraced. 

You see, to me, the Summer Olympics aren't something entertaining every four years.  They're a period when humanity comes together in unity to settle our disputes vicariously in an event where we are all reminded of our shared brotherhood.   No matter our differences, humanity is one species.  It doesn't matter your skin color, your religion, your sexual preference, your gender, or any other factor because the Olympics are about our shared humanity and how far we as a species have come and still have yet to go. 

The Olympics are about greatness of both the physical and of the human spirit.  Even those who fail to earn a medal are the best that their nation can send.  Every person in that stadium could easily defeat the average individual in their field.  However, that isn't the message that we are given.  Rather the message we are given is to cheer for these people, win or lose, because they represent us, no matter the nation.

H.G. Wells once wrote in his textbook "The Outline of History", published directly after the First World War, "our true nationality is mankind." and in no place do we recall this more than in the Olympic games.  No matter what is going on across the world, for seventeen days we cease to focus on all the negatives and we behold the enduring triumph of the human spirit.