I Love the Olympics

I love the Olympic Games. I love seeing people of every country from all parts of the world. I love the gripping suspense. I stand in awe at the incredible dedication it takes for someone to qualify and prepare to compete in the Olympics, and I love the personal profiles of the participants. Summer games or winter, Atlanta or Athens, Nagano or Vancouver, I love them all.

I heard an analyst saying the athletes in a certain event (it might have been speed skating) burn 10,000 calories a day. They said that's the equivalent of five pounds of chocolate a day. I saw the feature on the great swimmer Michael Phelps before the last summer games showing what he ate in an average twenty-four hours. It was a good solid four hours a day just to keep himself fueled.

I love the oldster coming back trying to hang on just as much as the sixteen-year-old there for the first time. The poetry of figure skating, the rough and tumble of hockey, the violence of boxing, the nimbleness of badminton or short track and the indomitable endurance of marathoners or cross country skiers are all compelling. We are privileged to see incredibly talented and motivated young people showing us the limits of what the human species is physically capable. We also see those who have no realistic shot at a medal who nonetheless have given all they have for years to get there and participate. I salute them perhaps most of all.

And I also love rooting for my country. The clean competition is a good substitute for international conflict and the unity we feel in pulling for our people and teams is a welcome respite from some of our societal loggerheads. I appreciate the athletes from all nations, but it's been extra special this week to see luminaries like Apolo Anton Ohno, Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller, Shaun White and the US hockey team bringing home the medals and doing so well.

For eighteen days every two years my wife and I spend a lot of time in front of the television watching the drama of the fastest, strongest, most graceful and best in the world live their dreams. I, for one, can't get enough of it. The Greeks came up with a spectacularly good idea in 776 B.C., and Baron de Coubertain did the world an immense favor in reviving the tradition in 1896 A.D. What a panoply, what a spectacle, what a hoot. How I love it!