Nothing compares to the Olympics when it comes to promoting the best in sports competition and peaceful international relations.

The Winter Olympics kicked off this week in the mountains of northern Italy. We’ll have two weeks of televised skiing, ice skating, sledding, hockey, curling and other winter pastimes.

In Minnesota the Winter Games are just as popular as the Summer Games. We are well represented on the United States Olympic roster. Hopefully our athletes will come home with a sizable set of medals.

I have Winter Olympics heroes from the Games of my younger days. Athletes were in Austria in 1976, Lake Placid in 1980, Sarajevo Yugoslavia in 1984 and Calgary in 1988.

We had speed skater Eric Heiden of Wisconsin who won all five men’s speed skating gold medals. We had men’s figure skating champions Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano. Downhill ski racer Bill Johnson told everyone he had gold in the bag and proved it on the slopes.

We also had the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the United States hockey team coached by Minnesota’s Herb Brooks that won gold. It inspired an entire generation of hockey players. It was also a source of national pride, something that counteracted inflation and the hostage crisis in Iran.

There’s always pride when Olympic medal winners take to the podium. It comes with a high degree of sportsmanship.

The Olympics doesn’t need the hype that goes with major professional sports in the United States. I’m not even going to watch the Super Bowl this weekend. It’s just a lot of artificial excitement for a game that’s usually not very interesting.

I will, however, be watching parts of the Winter Olympics. I want to see some of the action unfold. I want to take advantage of the opportunity to watch sports that get very little exposure outside the Olympic Games.

The Olympics have a rich history. Leaders in the 1890s had vision when they created the modern Olympics by reviving the ancient Greek tradition.

In the 1930s the Summer Games brought much needed attention to political issues. Many wealthy people drove Route 66 out to Los Angeles for the 1932 Olympics. They passed migrants who were journeying to California to labor in orchards and vineyards.

Some of them probably drove past the migrants without giving them a second glance. A certain percentage, however, most likely thought about the massive migration to California because of conditions in rural America that were caused by farm automation, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

Four years later the Summer Olympics were based in Berlin, Germany. It was a time of intentional tension because of the Nazi takeover and Hitler’s talk of a master race.

Black American track athlete Jesse Owens earned lasting worldwide fame by winning gold at Berlin. It was seen as proof that Hitler was misguided. Events of World War II made Owens even more of a hero.

There’s a unique opportunity almost a century later for the 2026 Winter Olympics to spark awareness. Some of the ancient Greek Games might have been canceled because of war, but often the city states put aside their differences. Historians think the Games were a reason to have temporary truces.

It would have been wonderful if Russia and Ukraine could have had a two week ceasefire this month, and if Israel and the Palestinians could have agreed to a truce in Gaza.

The United States Congress could take a stand for peaceful international relations by ordering President Trump to cease and desist in his efforts to acquire Greenland. Like the rest of the world, Greenland has watched the chaos in the United States caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invasions.

Greenland’s residents do not want to be part of Trump’s United States. They want to stay with Denmark. Their wishes should be respected.

I believe the Olympic Games will withstand current international issues. I hope young people throughout the world continue to have Olympic heroes. I hope they look up to today’s Olympic athletes in the same way I looked up to medal winners of the late 20th century.

The Olympics are special because they only happen once every four years. They’re a great reason to enjoy sports competition at its finest and to hope for a world with a bright future.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent