Olympics Commentary: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat

Every four years Olympic Athletes from across the world gather to compete and to get to know one another just a little bit better.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - Michael Phelps will bring home eight gold medals. The U.S. gymnastics team has won more medals than any American team since 1932. Lolo Jones, the expected winner, was at the ninth of ten hurdles in the women's 100m hurdles when her foot hit the cross bar. Trying to keep from falling, she dropped from first to seventh place as she crossed the finish line.

Between the judging of girl's gymnastics, unexpected falls and debilitating injuries, Americans have been able to watch the cream of our athletic crop experience Olympic competition- as Jim McKay used to say on the "Wide World of Sports" - from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat.

In four days the 29th Olympiad in Beijing will be history and the stories each athlete will take home are varied in their theme and ending. Some will relive moments of horror and embarrassment; others will replay glorious moments that have sealed a future of fame and fortune.

Lolo Jones, after her fateful race commented, "You hit a hurdle about twice a year where it affects your race," said Jones, who came in with the year's best time and an indoor world championship. It's just a shame that it happened on the biggest race of my life."

While each Olympic athlete will bring home a different experience, they will all bring home one common memory - "I was there."

My mother was a member of the Olympic Ski Team during WWII, when the Olympics were cancelled due to world conditions. She would be injured in a skiing accident before the next Olympics rolled around and never had the opportunity to say those three words. I always knew that made a difference.

This is the first Olympics I my lifetime when my mom wasn't glued to the TV, cheering on the American Team. She passed away last winter.

Growing up in a household of an almost-Olympian, those three words, however, mean a lot. Win or lose, you are a part of something significant. Even when hosted by a country whose ideologies are despicable, the very fact that you have participated in a quadrennial gathering of the finest athletes from most of the world is a significant event.

Certainly, one could question the quality of judging or wonder about the ages of some of the contestants. Many athletes could even wonder, "if only had had just done..." and fill in the blanks.

As the lights dim in the "Bird's Nest" and the water is still in the "Cube," my hope is that every American athlete will just celebrate the reality that I was there.

I am a fan of Kate Zeigler, the Olympic swimmer, for several reasons. She lives near me and has competed against a lot of swimmers that are from this area. Most of all, I was rooting for her because she is a passionate Catholic who lives her faith. She is also a board member of Catholic Athletes for Christ.

I was excited when she qualified as a member of the Olympic swim. While she didn't medal, I know that she is one of those who will celebrate those three words and work toward 2012.

There are others who will join her and mark the very fact that they competed at the highest level of active sport in the world.

The "modern" Olympic movement was the brainchild of Pierre de Coubertin who, in 1894, organized the International Athletic Congress of Paris. The first Olympic games were held in 1896. According to the original charter, the goal of the Olympic Movement "is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play."

Many of the categories of sport were not around when de Coubertin first had a vision for these "new" Olympics, but his goal was that these world-class athletes would bring back something from the games other than medals. He wanted them to experience the broader world and the people that lived in it.

While these ideals seemed quite lofty, they are very noble. They speak of developing a worldview that incorporates a broader perspective than one's hometown or even one's nation. Sport is a language that is to transcend culture, history, language, and geography. Unfortunately, at the same time, it becomes subject to man's lower nature, where envy, greed, and pride enter in.

The Olympics were organized as a sign of the on-going hope for global understanding. Such is not the case, however. Over the years scandal, cheating, drug enhancement, and forgery of records are only a few of the infractions that have gone on un-fettered. Yet the Olympics go on... every four years holding court and hoping that this competition may be better and less problematic. This is the optimistic Olympic hope.

As Catholics, we know that the real sign - and only foundation - of the hope they describe is the Church. The future of the world is not dependent upon the number of medals a nation wins. Nor is our geo-political standing going to be dramatically altered by our rank in the competition. Still, we can cheer them on - our national representatives of sports, whatever country we call home. Each one who wears our colors is investing, even if in a very small way, a greater sense of unity for the human condition.

We can applaud our Olympians as they return home, saying, "I was there."

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