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By Leo Tobbe
At the end of every day, I come home to my apartment and vent
to my roommates about the state of our country. I’m horrified by
the actions of ICE, I’ve lost sleep over the Epstein files, and the
AI bubble seems on track to burst right around the time my
friends and I graduate and enter the labor force.
Still, I keep an American flag hanging in my living room, right
above the TV. My roommates asked me once why I insist on
keeping it up when all I do is rant about everything wrong with
our country. The answer, I think, is best illustrated by South
Park’s response to 9/11 and America’s subsequent invasion of
Afghanistan:
“America may have some problems, but it’s our home. Our team. And if you don’t want to root
for your team, you should get the hell out of the stadium. Go America. Go Broncos.”
Right now, our team is competing halfway across the world in the Winter Olympics. Two
hundred and thirty-two Americans, many of them younger than myself, are representing us on
the international stage, and I’m rooting for them.
Sports and global politics have always been connected. Sports are a universal language,
exercised and enjoyed by communities under every flag. They give us the opportunity to bridge
cultural divides, foster positive relations, and notice the fact that we may not be as different as
we think. Even when the world is rife with conflict and tension, athletes cross oceans in the spirit
of friendly competition. Every two years, the most bitter geopolitical rivals set aside their
differences to engage with one another not on a battlefield, but in a stadium.
Furthermore, the Olympics give Americans the opportunity to show the world that we’re more
than our government or what they see on the news. While our leaders push the rest of the world
away, the American public invites the world into their living rooms through their televisions,
almost as if to say, “we know what our government says, but we still want to play hockey with
you.”
If you haven’t been following the Olympics this winter, I implore you to do so. When you see
our beloved Team USA standing alongside the Chinese, Canadian, Italian, Austrian, and Korean
teams, you’ll see something incredible. Amazingly talented individuals, desperate to show the
world what they’re made of. They’re ambitious, hopeful, and glowing with gratitude and joy.
The happiest you’ll see them is when they win. The second happiest you’ll see them is when
someone else does. Their desire for victory is matched only by their love for their competitors. If
our leaders were a little more like these athletes, we could achieve so much together and be truly
great. We have so much to learn from them.
Leo is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the Class of 2028. He is studying political science and economics.