Whether it’s the Winter or Summer Olympic games, the Olympics are a magical event for everyone. For the athletes who have the great honor of representing their countries on the world stage to those of us at home cheering them on from our couches, one cannot help but feel a strong connection to the event and the spirit that the Games exude. In honor of the recent start of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, here are four reasons why the Olympics are magical for everyone.
1. A sense of unity.
With all controversies and politics aside, one of the most magical aspects of the Olympics is the ability of the Games to bring together people from all different places and enable them to share their love of sports with each other. This sense of unity that comes with the Olympics is best evident in the official logo of the Games. While one can interpret the logo in many different ways, according to the original design the rings represent the unity of five different continents: Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania.
In these specific Olympics, a strong sense of world unity is seen specifically in the creation of the first Olympic refugee team, a team filled with talented athletes who escaped their home countries for a variety of reasons and have been given the chance to show their talent.
2. Triumphs of athletes.
Let's face it -- the Olympics wouldn’t be what they are without the athletes themselves. In addition to the insane amount of talent and ability Olympic athletes possess, events seem to become the most exciting when: an athlete largely rises above the other competitors and “are in a class of their own” as well as when an athlete has been struggling with their performances and or injuries and rebounds, defying the odds.
3. The ability for these triumphs to inspire others.
While the triumphs of athletes in the Olympics are broadcast to people's television sets throughout the globe, in front of these TVs are hundreds of wide-eyed children with their faces glued to screen. It is at this moment that young athletes are born and children become inspired to be involved in sports. In addition to this magic, the Games also have the general ability to inspire people of all different ages to work harder in all aspects of their life.
4. Sports that don’t usually gain much attention from the public are brought to the forefront.
While I can go on a long rant about why it angers me that it seems that during each Olympics people will focus on a specific sport and then seem to forget about it for another four years, in reality the heightened attention for the short few weeks of the Games is very positive. This large focus on specific sports from both the media and people of the general public is arguably one of the ways in which specific sports and interests in these sports are kept alive.
From the excitement the extremely talented athletes involved in the Games bring to the table to the great pride and team spirit that the fans exude, the Olympics will forever remain a truly magical spectacle.
