The economy may be in the dumps, the presidential campaign growing nastier and climate change turning the ice caps into ice cubes.
But the Beijing Olympics are nearly here, and for three weeks, starting Aug. 8, humankind can tune in, turn on and chill out.
An Olympiad is more than a sporting event. It’s about testing the limits of athletic performance. It’s about teamwork. It’s about pride.
Cheering for the home team means rooting for one’s country. Once our medal-draped athletes stand on the podium and “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays, there’s no way to suppress that lump in the throat or tear in the eye.
For Jews, we get a two-fer. The plucky Israeli national team will be in Beijing, too, and though we may not see a duplication of Israel’s 2004 gold medal success (Gal Fridman won in windsurfing in Athens), the team has plenty of prospects.
As this week’s cover story reveals, the Israeli team is as diverse as Israel itself. An Orthodox woman from a West Bank settlement will complete in taekwondo. A 53-year-old Ethiopian Jew will run the marathon. Several gymnasts are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
The U.S. team, too, has a Jewish contingent — seven in all — led by 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres. A nine-time Olympic medalist, Torres is swimming well, and is surely in medal contention. She’s an American, a Californian and Jewish, so we have three reasons to root for her.
There is even a Jewish San Franciscan on the U.S. team, swimmer Ben Wildman-Tobriner. A bar mitzvah boy from Congregation Sherith Israel, Wildman-Tobriner is the pride of San Francisco and the Jewish community.
And he is one of three Jews on the four-man 400-meter freestyle relay team. It doesn’t get any better than that.
We are familiar with the criticisms that cycle around with every Olympiad: the games are no longer about amateur sports, that nationalism and politics have crept in, that too many athletes use performance-enhancing drugs. This year, many are uneasy about holding the games in a country that violates human rights and degrades the environment.
Just a few months ago during the torch relay, the streets of San Francisco swelled with protesters objecting to China’s oppression of Tibet and abetting the Darfur genocide.
There is truth to all of these criticisms. Purity is never easy to enforce. But there is still something inspiring about the world coming together to compete in a spirit of good will. It’s unique to the Olympics.
So let’s root for our athletes and enjoy this much-needed pause in the tumult of the times. Go Team USA and go Team Israel.