Olympics 2022

       Watching the Olympics has been our family tradition for forty years. And now, because we watch on YouTube TV, I can watch almost any Olympic sport at any time of the day. It’s a great time to be alive.

       Every two years it’s the same story. We stay up late and watch sports we don’t understand, we take sides when speed skaters are feuding like junior high boys even when we don’t really care about which guy is right, we discuss short-track strategy as if we understand it, we comment on the figure skating costumes and whether they are manly enough, we wish we were young and wild and crazy like snowboarders, we hope we look as good together as ice dancers, and occasionally, we even watch hockey (if curling isn’t on). We are fans of every Olympic sport for at least two weeks.

       I enjoy the opening ceremony; my favorite is the parade of athletes when they enter the stadium. The team members from Kazakhstan don’t look like each other, they look like individuals, but they look significantly different than the athletes from Norway. (Although the mandatory masks didn’t help with this observation.) I like to know, in our modern connected world, we’re still individuals, and we resemble other members of our tribes.

       I also like analyzing all the team uniforms for the opening. It’s obviously a struggle to represent individual cultures and yet remain practical (except for American Samoa – they don’t care about practical). However, some of the team uniforms look like they were designed by committees who never had to wear them.

       So far, I’ve never cheered for an Olympic team that my next-door neighbor hated. I can’t say that about college football. And knowing the games will last only a couple of weeks (as opposed to the NBA playoffs, for example) helps me sacrifice the time and energy to watch.

       All sports have an aspect of danger to them – some much more than others. The Winter Olympics seem to have more opportunities for high-speed crashes than the Summer Olympics. The Ski Halfpipe, for example, saw 28% of athletes injured in the 2018 games. Snowboard Cross had 26%.

       I’m inspired by the skill and talent of the athletes. Their stories are inspirational and show their hard work and determination through obstacles. This is the power of stories: When we think we cannot go on, when it is just too hard and no one really understands, we hear these stories, and we gain strength. These stories inspire us and give us hope.

       We don’t have many ways left in our culture to be collectively inspired. After more than a year of lockdown, tragedy, and uncertainty, watching athletes achieve their dreams despite all the challenges feels like one.

       Regardless of whether it’s winter or summer, I love it when it’s that time again and the Olympics take over our television. I can’t wait for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32

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