Die Olympischen Spiele

I love the Olympics.  I just love them.

First of all, with today's technology, one can watch some sort of athletic competition all. the. time.  You pick what you want to watch, find it on the Internet, cable, or wherever, and watch world-class athletes putting out their best performances.  You can see how proud all of the athletes, coaches, and fans are.  You can appreciate the hours of practice and sacrifice that they have made to be a part of this great event.  As someone whose main participation in athletics is as a spectator, I admire the work and dedication it takes to be an elite athlete.  I personally don't think that, even if I had the skill, that I'd have the perservereance to be at that level.  Truly, I'm not sure I'd have that level of dedication to be elite in anything I have reasonable skill in.

Secondly, I just like the international nature of the Olympics.  In the US, if you are a sports fan, most of the competition you see is against other Americans.  I teach high school, and attend a lot of sporting events.  Rarely do our athletes compete against people from a different city, let alone a different state.  It's even my understanding that the Indiana High School Athletic Association has rules about how far a team can travel to compete.

The reason I like the international nature of the Olympics is that we get to see that for the most part, people are people and very little truly separates us.  I was watching the USA men's volleyball team compete against Germany today, live streamed on my iPad.  There was no commentary, just the game.  At time outs, the camera focused on both coaches.  At one point, the German coach told his team, "It's simple.  You just need to talk to each other!" (Well, he said it in German...)  I have been to my share of volleyball games, and I think that I have heard every single coach say that to his or her team at least once in a match.  It really made me chuckle.

I also especially enjoy being able to learn about sports that aren't in the mainstream.  While the marquee sports of the Summer Olympics are gymnastics, swimming, and track and field, I've had a chance to see some others that I might not even get a chance to see.  Sunday I watched a little bit of the USA Women's Field Hockey match.  It was really interesting.  Who knows, maybe some young athlete out there will be inspired to try some kind of competition they'd never heard of before.

On a slightly lighter note, I'm also generally intrigued buy the uniforms of all of the athletes.  Not only do I enjoy watching the competition, but I rate the attractiveness of the uniforms.  I guess I'm just a girl that way.

Finally, and it should be no surprise, I just love seeing the American patriotism that it brings about.  Especially in light of recent years when it seems like we are the Divided States of America rather than the United States of America.  No matter what your political or philosophical leanings are, I think most Americans would agree that they love to support our American athletes.  To hear the chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" helps me to believe that there's hope for our nation.  Maybe.