The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are starting on August 5, which is less than a week away.
The 2016 Presidential Election is on November 8, 2016, which is over three months away.
Which one of these have you heard about more? Which one is constantly in the news and all over social media? Which one does it seem impossible to ignore?
The Olympic Games are not getting the publicity they deserve because they are overshadowed by the election news. I know that the election is a huge deal, and definitely news-worthy, but while I will definitely argue that the Olympics are a much more exciting event, they are also a lot sooner than the election.
The presidential election is a few people from the same country who are competing against each other. There are 555 U.S. Olympians competing in Rio against more than 10,000 athletes from around the world.
The presidential candidates are predictable. They like to tell us that they're so different from each other but they are actually incredibly similar. They insult each other, call each other names, and say what they think their supporters want to hear them say. They point out each other's faults and then talk about how great they themselves are and how great they would be for this country.
The Olympic Games, on the other hand, are unpredictable. There are champions, underdogs, and everything in between. There are so many different things that can be achieved at the Olympics, such as gold, silver, or bronze medals, world records, and national records. There are short Olympians, tall Olympians, old and young Olympians; there are people of all religions, races, and genders. Olympians are so different from each other, not anything like the cookie cutter candidates.
Most importantly, the Olympic Games are set to begin in less than a week, yet everyone is so obsessed with the upcoming election (even though it's not happening for three months!!) and the latest candidate drama that they are not focused on the world's biggest sporting event.
People train their whole lives just for one shot at glory. Don't you think that we should give them that glory? Take our attention off of the candidates and their latest "he-said, she-said" news for just a few weeks? Focus on these athletes, who have trained so hard and so long for their moment in the spotlight?
For the next two weeks, I will keep my attention focused on the Olympics and not on the election. We have so much time to worry about which candidate did what. On August 21, in less than 3 weeks, the Rio Olympics will be finished, the medals handed out, the flame extinguished, and the glory received.
