Like millions of people worldwide, I have been actively watching the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. For the past week I have spent a large portion of my nights in front of the tv watching the United States participate in everything ranging from aquatics (my personal favorite) to gymnastics, beach volleyball, and so much more. Besides bolstering a great sense of national pride and an incredible appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the athletes participating in these games, to people around the world, The Olympics are about more just athleticism--they are about coming together as a global community.

The Olympic Games go back as far as 776 BC to a time when ancient Greek city-states would come together every four years in Olympia, Greece to participate in a series of competitions at the sanctuary of Zeus. These games promoted a time of civility between the different city-states and as people from all across Greece gathered to compete against one another and honor the mighty Zeus, the games began to evolve and change with the addition of new events and the development and growth of others.

Today, The Olympics still represent a time of civility between nations around the world. More than 200 different nations come together to participate in the various events and watching the athletes from all of these nations and witnessing the sportsmanship between athletes who have some history (I'm looking at you Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos) just shows that the world is still able to come together and, at least for a little while, problems seem to disappear. The famous symbol of The Olympics, the five, interconnected, colored rings are rooted in this idea of coming together; each of the rings represents the unity of the nations that make up the inhabited continents: The Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

It is this idea of sportsmanship that makes The Olympics such an amazing event. Obviously watching the sheer talent and willpower of the greatest athletes in the world is an amazing thing to witness, but seeing so many people come together to appreciate a sport that they have dedicated their lives to and watching the dreams that many of these athletes have been striving for since that were five or six years old finally come to fruition is an amazing sight.

Don't get me wrong, I like to watch The Olympics as entertainment, but thinking about what these games mean and what they have the power to do just makes them that much more special.

And on a final note... GO TEAM USA!