5 Profound Reasons We’re Crazy About the Olympics

The Olympics start this week and we are ready to go bonkers for it. Why do we get so into a bunch of sports we otherwise don’t care about? The games aren’t just about fun. It’s more than that. We can sense the energy. We can feel it. Our interest in the Olympics may go deeper than we realize. Perhaps this unique set of games scratches an itch deep in the heart of us.

I live in one of those families that is obsessed with the Olympics. Why am I up at three in the morning for a curling match between Norway and Kazakhstan?  Why am so invested in a skier whose name I didn’t know an hour ago?

The reason is simple. Like most things, the Olympics (and our fascination with them) are about much more than what is happening on the surface. Here are five reasons the Olympics seem to hit us at our core.

1) Excellence

First, and perhaps most obvious, the Olympians inspire us with their excellence. Most of us don’t know what it is we are doing in this world. We have trouble naming our values and committing to a purpose.

These professional athletes have a clear vision for their lives. They make sacrifices. They own their choices. And it bears incredible fruit. It is much easier for us to watch the end result of this beautiful manifestation in another’s life than it is to go through the trial and training required to achieve it in our own.

But the Olympics show us that excellence is possible. Olympians value their sport enough to sacrifice diet and time and mental energy. For four years, they train and train and train. The result is amazing to watch. And it stirs up a desire in each of us that longs for some excellence in our own lives worth sacrificing for.