contributed photo Germany’s Nils Ehlers, left, and France’s Remi Bassereau slaps hands in a display of sportsmanship after net interference in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics on July 30, in Paris.

For two summer weeks every four years, the hearts and minds of Americans turn to the Olympics. World class athletes assemble for the summer games to compete against the globe’s strongest, fastest, and most skilled competitors. They exemplify hard work, discipline, and perseverance. Years of endurance training, weightlifting, technique training, sleep training, diet monitoring, and mental preparation culminate into a one-hundred-meter dash that lasts less than eight seconds, a couple laps around the pool, and a surfing competition so gnarly even a whale joins in on the fun.

Most importantly, American Olympians represent our great country and all that can be achieved by the people of the free world. They compete to honor the soldiers huddled around a television in a faraway nation. They compete out of reverence for those who represented America before them. They compete to spark a fire in the heart of the child glued to the television during Simone Biles’ vault performance.

They compete, and we cheer for them as a nation. They stumble, and we cry with them. They take their place atop the podium, and our hearts swell with pride at the sight of our flag and the sounds of our national anthem. For two weeks, we are Team America. For two weeks, we rise and fall as one. For two weeks, we are united by the highs and lows of the games.

We needed it this year. In an election year with a hotly contested presidential race, we needed someone to rally around and root for. Over this summer, the sitting president withdrew from the race for a second term. A former president vying for a second term was the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally. The political divide amongst the good people of our country inspires vitriol and angst rather than forging our best ideas and solutions in the fires of debate. We needed something to remind us that we Americans are one. We needed someone to remind us that it is an honor and a privilege to live under the protection of the stars and stripes. We needed to witness greatness so that we may aspire to even greater things.

How many people teamed up to train, encourage, and support Katie Ledecky’s gold medal victories in women’s freestyle swimming? How many superstars set aside their differences and egos for Team USA Basketball to look to Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Anthony Edwards as its leaders? How many sacrifices have families, friends, coaches, trainers, and competitors made in the pursuit of greatness on behalf of our country at the Olympic games?

One person can accomplish many things. A group can accomplish more. A united America, where we value loving our neighbors more than we value winning an argument, will accomplish greater things than the generations that came before us. Like the Olympians we are so proud of, we have an opportunity to unify and redefine greatness. I believe we will seize that opportunity. I believe in our country. I believe in our people. I look forward to what we will accomplish together.

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Jordan Gaffney is the Marshall County Attorney.