The Olympic Spirit

The Olympics, be it Summer or Winter, are a time for the country to come together. The Summer more so, because not everyone gets a winter. These events allow the host nation to “welcome” in “friends” and share their hospitality with them. It gives them the chance to showcase their culture, what a great way to educate the world! It’s almost an excuse for world leaders to show support for each other by sending normal citizens to represent their country in front of the world. Every summit the “Big 5”, the “Big 5 plus 1”, or the G-20 attend there are protestors. Don’t get me wrong, protestors are good, they force those in the summit to address issues to a certain extent, but they also tend to mar the proceedings through their actions. So why not use the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics to normalize relations with one another? As I watch the events I notice that at the end of a race/run the competitor that lost, had a slower run or that was bumped out of contention congratulates the winner or the person that bested them—that’s the epitome of sportsmanship. Why can’t our leaders conduct themselves with sportsmanship? Every country has pride, every country wants what is best for their people (or their leader), and every country wants to be the best; just like every competitor wants to win, wants to beat their rival and wants their place atop their respective sport. But at the end of the race, event, or season they congratulate the better man and rededicate themselves for the next go-around. Competitors need each other to make themselves better. They need someone to push them to their limits, to be the best they can be. We need our leaders to push each other to be better leaders. We don’t need our leaders to call others bluffs or force their hand, i.e. repeatedly call for sanctions. We did it to Saddam in the 90’s and 00’s. We kept calling for him to reveal his WMD’s when he probably didn’t have them, he was just trying to show possible threats that Iraq wasn’t as weak as it really was. We don’t need to repeat that with Iran or North Korea, because what if we force their hand, what if they are further along militarily than we think. We need our leaders to show sportsmanship. We need them to cooperate and work together to make this world better. They need to recognize that every side has pride in their country and that every side wants a piece of the pie. Only when the leaders of the world have the same understanding can they work towards progress, otherwise they are working to someone’s gain, not everyone’s.