http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_boycott_of_the_1980_Summer_Olympics

And Remember. Contribute to the IOC. Because. “America doesn’t send athletes to the Olympics, Americans Do!!”

I begrudge every damned cent of my tax money that goes to support this competitive BS, and have all my adult life.

But, when all of that is done and the games finally begin, they are a lot of fun and a great experience.

Here’s my Olympic torch story. In 1996 I lived maybe a mile away from the Olympic stadium. The last night before the opening ceremonies, the Adolf Hitler memorial torch run was going through the neighborhoops of Atlanta. At 10pm or so it was supposed to go past my favorite neighborhood bar. So I went over to eat dinner, drink a couple of beers and see the torch go by.

I wasn’t the only one with the idea, so there was a nice crowd in the place. The owners were cool people, so one of them was going table to table with a bottle of Jaegermeister giving away free shots to everyone in the place. I was one of the regulars in the place, so somehow he kept swinging by my table. :)

Somewhere in the evening, two guys from Austrailia came in. Loud, boisterous and a lot of fun. Said hello on their first night in Atlanta by buying the bar a round of drinks. So, we bought them a few rounds back. Everyone got a little louder and more boisterous. That was a good hint for what the Olympics were going to be like.

10pm came and went, no sign of the torch. More shots of Jaegermeister. More shots and more storytelling with the Aussies. Still no torch. Someone said they’d heard on tv or radio that it was hours behind schedule. More shots.

By 3 am, me and the owner of the bar are sitting on the curb of the street outside the bar, with another bottle of Jaegermeister going back and forth between us. The Aussies had given up and gone back to the hotel. I remember a bunch of bright flashing lights going past, and looking up and realizing one of them must be the torch.

The Olympics are great. Eventually, all the BS is past and its just people. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world gather and have a great time watching their favorite athletes. Everyone is friendly. Everyone is there to have a good time. And you meet people from litterally everywhere.

Sports gives people a reason to talk. When people would normally look at each other an not know what to say, sports gives them an ice-breaker to talk. During the Olympics, you can walk up to anyone and talk to anyone. The Olympics gives you the common ground to connect on that level. After that, its just two human beings talking.

There’s a lot of BS spread about the Olympic Spirit by the IOC types. But you know what, behind all the hot air, its real. There is an Olympic Spirit. Its one of peace and friendship. Its hundreds of thousands of people coming together and having a good time. Its those Aussies walking into our bar and everyone enjoying the evening.

We had a right-wing Nazi in Atlanta try to spoil it with a bomb. The next day, I was standing in line to get into the main stadium to watch track and field. The line was longer because they’d increased security checks. There were probably 80,000 people in those lines, and I think everyone had the same thought …. what sort of psycho would try to bomb this? The spirit of peace was so palpable that this idiot with a bomb just seemed obviously insane.

There’s a lot of BS with the Olympics. Everyone tries to score political points from it. The Chinese are trying to do it. So I don’t mind if someone else scores a few back. I can’t stand the opening ceremonies anyways, so I don’t care if the politician types attend or not.

But, once all of that is done, something magical will happen. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world will gather. And they’ll meet and talk with others. They’ll laugh. They’ll enjoy some competition and cheer on their favorite athletes. They’ll look around and see everyone else doing the same. For the people who are there, all the BS of the world, all the political scheming that tries to keep us humans divided, it will all drop away. Just look into the eyes of your fellow man and see their laughter and joy. We are really all just the same.