I happen to love sports; I've played them my whole life. The challenge to do better and to improve upon what one did the day before, it's an addiction. Then there's the team itself which is the biggest reward in my opinion. They become a family and every experience one has with them is so fantastic.Having great teammates around you makes playing sports so much better and more enjoyable.

This is why I love the Olympics; it is a global competition which unites everyone. I really enjoy watching my sport, track and field, in the Olympics because it is so diverse. Every athlete from every country in the world has a chance to win gold in track and field. When you watch the events the athletes don't hate each other after the race, they don't look at each other as enemies.

When I watched the women's beach volleyball preliminaries, I saw America verse Russia. On every point scored, either against or for their team, both teams showed sportsmanship and respect. In that moment, they forgot the history of their two nations. They chose not to judge the other team even though their two countries almost destroyed the world in nuclear war mere decades earlier. Every time I see this during the Olympics, for the most part, every athlete does the same thing. There seems to be mutual respect. My guess is they do this because they know how difficult it is to get where they are. It is an honor to represent one's country in the most prestigious and long lasting athletic competition in all of human history.

When I watch the Olympics, I don't see racism and hatred. I see what the world can become. I see what the world is already becoming: a global society. It is the end game for humanity; eventually we will realize that we are in more ways similar than different. That the color of one's skin does not define them. We'll realize that each individual struggles through life quite similar to our own, regardless of wealth.

There are three major features in the modern world which show me that this is becoming a reality: the Olympic Games, which brings every country together for friendly competition; the United Nations, which could be improved, but is a good start towards a global government; and, finally, there is the internet; -- a globalized system connecting people, countries and information. That is what I see when I watch the Olympics.