Olympic London...

The last time the Olympics happened it was in Beijing.  It was only four years ago, but it seems like much more.  I had been in Beijing in 2006, and Seoul, Korea as well that year, where the first Olympics that I remember happened in 1988.  (Okay, I remember Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson.)  The Olympics was amazing then and it is amazing now.  

A friend of mine made a point the other day.
One that I had never thought of.  Everybody runs.
It's not specific, like water polo or archery.
It's just, simply running.  And this guy is the fastest ever.  

In sports, our perfect tournament is College Basketball’s NCAA Final Four, our greatest American sporting event is the Superbowl, the baseball pennant races are historic, and the greatest international event is the World Cup.  But the Olympics is something completely unto itself.  It is so much more than a sporting event.  It is a wonderful testament to us.  To mankind, to civilization.  It is right at the heart of what captures our imaginations; humans pushing their physical limits on a global stage, and bringing people together.  It’s beautiful. 

Thinking hypothetically about a utopian planet.  Thinking about advanced beings living in peace and harmony (the stuff that science fiction has touched on for 50 years) it would seem like the way to that place for those (real or unreal) societies must have included an event like this.  Along the evolution to a higher understanding, in becoming a brilliant conglomerate of sentient beings that don’t need war or wealth to validate their existence, something like the Olympics must have taken place allowing for the eventual enlightenment.  Think of how far we have come on this planet, just in the last hundred years.  Before the internet and a general acceptance, or at least understanding, of the many different cultures in the world, the Olympics was at the heart of it.  Forcing people from distant countries to look at each other.

Yes, it was in the spirit of competition and patriotism and sometimes tensions ran high, but intermixed was the notion of an eventual global oneness.  Think of what that was like a hundred years ago.  What was it like, in that time, to realize that people that don’t look like you from places you’ve never been and will probably never go, really aren’t that different from you after all?

That deep down, we all want the same things.

Those notions have to be the precursor to the (at least now) imagined advanced civilizations of science fiction.  And because of it, the Olympics is still the preeminent sports event on our planet.  It brings everyone together in ways that nothing else could.  It's what we keep saying about sports.  It transcends.  It truly has a beautiful and amazing power.    

But outside of the bigger (or intergalactic) picture, the beauty of the Olympics for me has always been the attention that is brought to so many sporting events that normally don’t enter into the global conscience.  Handball, water polo, archery, fencing, diving.  There are no mulit-million dollar contracts waiting for these athletes (even if they win gold medals.)  They are complete amateurs, in it for the love, in it for the passion.  

London was filled with these hopefuls this summer.  And as we watched the closing ceremonies last night I realized that, one of the greatest cities in the world may have pulled off the perfect Olympics.  I was going to go, but I didn’t.  Man.... I definitely should have :)

To all my British friends.  Thanks for the invite.  Sorry I didn’t make it. 

But the Underdogs were alive and well.  
And you guys nailed it!

Thanks for reading.
Underdogs out.