Resilience at the 2024 Paris Olympics

To say I’ve been having a good time at the Paris would be an understatement. I’ve been having an AMAZING experience! Meeting so many kind strangers from around the world and hearing their stories and sharing a meal or a seat in the stands with them has bolstered my faith in humanity. Kindness is everywhere, and it exists in more than just your tiny corner of the world, where most of us expect to find the bulk of our experiences.

The word I’ve been thinking about a lot is resilience. I say this because often when we feel discouraged by our jobs, by our families, our neighbors, our friends, our finances or our (fill in the blank), we think we won’t ever bounce back. But this idea of never giving up and believing that you are capable and strong and things will work out if you keep going…it’s something I’ve seen so much of here in at the Olympics.

I saw it very much when I watched Italy vs Japan in men’s volleyball. Italy was getting massively crushed, but they never quit. Somehow Italy pulled out a win in the fifth set after they lost their first two sets and were down 24-22 in the third set. They held on to win the fourth set and then winning the fifth over Japan in overtime. It was such a mind-boggling victory. In fact, there was one point in the third set where a player ran away from the net and kicked the ball backward to his teammates to get it over the net. I never knew that that was a thing!

After that we watched women’s volleyball, where Serbia competed against China. While a small country, Serbia is a proud group, and their athletes always seem to outperform their country size. In fact, Novak Djokovic had just eclipsed Carlos Alcazar from Spain to win the gold medal in tennis shortly after we sat down. Though the Serbs took the first set, the Chinese won the next three sets and the match 4-1.

We passed throngs of Brazilians on the streets, feeling the pulse of excitement as they got ready to watch their team compete against Poland. Brazil loves their volleyball almost as much as their football (soccer). Later, as we were getting dinner, the air was filled with joviality as Brazil had indeed won. We learned there was a Brazilian steakhouse just down the street, so we elected to go there for dinner. While there, we met a lovely French couple who had visited the U.S. many times. The French love their dogs, and most restaurants allow dogs to join their families. This family brought their majestic Komondor named Didier. For his size, he was incredibly shy. We couldn’t get over his beautiful dreadlocks we had never seen before. What a marvelous time we had!

Resilience is such a good word, but there are so many the Olympics have brought up for me. Included among them are friendship, community and kindness. What word has been floating around in your mind lately?