RIO DE JANEIRO _ In a world that seems to grow more uncertain and violent with each passing day, do the Olympics even matter anymore?
The Olympic opening ceremony in Brazil arrives Friday night, with drums pounding and samba dancers writhing. But all those bright colors won't hide the fact that the Olympics do sometimes seem antiquated, with noble ideals that are too often unreached.
The problems are manifold here in Rio, and most of them are a lot bigger than the little mosquitoes whose spread of the Zika virus has caused a public health emergency in Brazil. Over the years, the Olympics have seen corruption. Terrorism. And, of course, numerous doping scandals _ the most recent one so significant that more than 100 Russian athletes have been banned from these Olympics.
And yet every four years the Summer Olympics manage to capture our hearts all over again, mostly because of the athletes. It is those athletes with their stories of struggle and triumph who supersede the inevitable list of monstrous problems faced by the host city. Once the torch is lit and NBC starts running all the joy and the tears in slow motion _ it gets me every time.
I would argue we need the Olympics more than ever these days. Many of us feel beaten down by the daily dose of nastiness that shows up in our news feeds. In today's uber-connected society, it's hard to get away from it. Olympic swimmer Anthony Ervin of Charlotte, N.C., was so worried about giving himself negative mojo that he stayed away from all the news entirely during the Olympic Trials last month.
"I made a conscientious effort to tune out," said Ervin, who at age 35 is one of the older and more thoughtful Olympians that you will ever meet. "Because it's almost all bad news, isn't it? The world stage, politics, terrorism _ the world just has a lot of problems."
No one would debate that point. Alternately, no one should be naive enough to believe the Olympics will solve all those problems in one giant, worldwide Kumbaya singalong.
But sports can help people get along at any level _ whether it's the Olympics or T-ball.
