I have a confession to make: I love sports. I love watching them, and I love trying to play them. Much of this love stems from my love for for following rules--few disciplines have such specific, rigid, and closely-monitored rules as sports do--and for watching elite athletes perform and even create something new within those strict rules. Perhaps more importantly here, though, I love watching sports because they are true (discounting rare exceptions and conspiracy theories). I can watch an entire baseball game or track race and not wonder if something was cut or changed for time or effect or deception. Katie Ledecky really finished a swimming race five seconds ahead of her nearest competitor on Sunday, breaking her own world record. Odell Beckham Jr. truly made that uncatchable catch in his rookie NFL season. The amazing things athletes do are visible and measurable and hard to fake.
The Olympics, therefore, are like my quadrennial birthday. I could watch nearly every event, even ones whose rules I am baffled by, like rugby and wrestling. The wins (and sometimes losses) can bring tears to my eyes even though I have no personal connection to any of the athletes and usually don't relate to their stories. I am awed by the combination of natural talent and sustained effort to improve that these athletes exhibit. I'm sure I'm not alone in this--why else would NBC and its affiliates run almost non-stop television coverage for two weeks? It's all a refreshing break from election news and other world crises (if problematic that we can ignore crises to watch someone pole vault).
News outlets, too, have suggested that The Olympics are a break for the Presidential candidates themselves from the spotlight, a way for them to rest and regroup before the big election push. Donald Trump, especially, seems to need a break after his last two weeks of attacking dead war heroes' parents, citing film footage that didn't exist, and throwing babies out of his rallies, among other headline gaffs. However, he continues to attempt attacks on Clinton, this time with the dubious claim that "many people are saying" that an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed because of her hacked emails. #manypeoplearesaying is now trending on Twitter, but this type of phrase has been a hallmark of Trump's campaign; he makes outlandish claims that can't be supported by fact and then places the onus of their truth vaguely on others. In this way he can say anything he wants without owning or verifying it, and if it is racist or false, he can blame it on others, whether they are specific others or vague, unnameable ones.
Rather than a welcome break from campaigning, The Olympics, I posit, will mostly highlight the contrast that an unskilled, untruthful Trump makes with world-class athletes who are the pinnacle of skill and whose very skills are displayed, mostly unedited, to the world. Hillary Clinton certainly is not the pinnacle of truth herself, but one might well argue that she is close to a political pinnacle due mainly to her diligence and hard work. My guess is that the U.S. will return to the Presidential candidates from Rio with less tolerance for shoddy, fake antics.
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