You probably noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately (who am I kidding? No one noticed). Well, the wait is over, patient followers, as I’m back from assignment after spending the past six days covering the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. That‘s right boys and girls, I missed nearly a week of classes so that you, the Cornell Sun readership, could have a first-hand account of the 2010 Olympic Games. Well, maybe part of the reason I went was because I selfishly couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a lifetime, but that’s beside the point.

Like many Americans, I had thought of the Olympics (summer and winter) as the event every couple of years when the United States could demonstrate its athletic superiority in a wide range of events that few Americans fully understand (how many of you have tried or can explain the technique in Bobsledding? Equestrian? Skeleton?). Many Americans watch the games, but rarely at the expense of missing an episode of American Idol or 30 Rock.

After experiencing the Olympics up close, I gained a different perspective. Those residing outside of United States soil tend to take the games far more seriously than we do. People follow the Olympics in the U.S., but few follow the games in the way that many obsess over the MLB or NFL. Meanwhile, the Olympics are THE sporting event for the rest of the world. Countries rally around their athletes, and the medal-winners are treated like royalty upon their returns home.

However, while on the surface the Olympics appear to be a vehicle for individuals to show their patriotism, the true spirit of the games is in its ability to bring people together. People travel across the globe to support their athletes. Individuals feel a bond with their countrymen that exists in few other settings, but people are also exposed to those from other countries in a manner that could only take place at the Olympics.

At the men’s luge event, a Canadian man and a Japanese man traded Olympic pins without uttering a single word in a language the other could understand, instead using gestures and hand signals to make a deal. When a fallen skiier was slow to get up, the entire audience cheered as he made it back onto his skis and across the finish line. At the opening ceremonies, thousands of people representing dozens of nations demonstrated a genuine sense of compassion as they honored a moment of silence in tribute to the Georgian Olympian, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died during a training accident earlier in the day.

In many ways, the Olympics are still about great athletes representing their countries on a World stage. On a deeper level though, the games unite people from around the World. Russians cannot help but root for the Canadian skier who, inspired by his brother who suffers from cerebral palsy, earned the first gold medal ever won by a Canadian on Canadian soil. Brazilians learn the story of the Dutch speed skater who trained his whole life in preparation for the 2006 Olympic Games in which he won a silver medal. He then spent the next four years training even harder to capture gold — as he finally did on Saturday. The human interest stories created by various publications about the games serve to help people sympathize with individuals from faraway places who they may otherwise struggle to relate to.

It’s hard for Americans to comprehend the importance of the Olympics globally because we do not prioritize the games the way people do in other countries. If ESPN’s coverage is any indication of national sentiment, Americans care more about the NBA, MLB, NFL and Nascar than they do about the Olympics. In other parts of the world, the Olympic Games take on far greater importance.

The Games are the equivalent of packing the entire NFL and MLB seasons into two weeks. During those two weeks, people with backgrounds as diverse as a Cornell classroom come together to make the world seem a whole lot smaller.