2008 is the year China hosts the Olympics. Most of the focuses, so far, have been on spectacular structures (ex. Bird’s Nest & Water Cube) and the extraordinary efforts & investment by the Chinese officials to make the Beijing Olympics successful.

However, let us not forget that the Olympics are a celebration of humanity. The Olympics have witnessed some of human beings’ greatest triumphs and moments. Without a doubt, the Beijing Olympics will feature inspirational moments that will be talked about long after the event. Let’s recap some of the most motivating and emotional Olympic moments:

In 1936, Jesse Owens, an African-American, surprised many when he won 4 gold medals in track and field. The grandson of a slave and son of a sharecropper, Jesse Owens had to endure racial discrimination to represent United States at the Olympics. Hitler had hoped to use the Berlin Olympics to demonstrate Aryan superiority and African inferiority.

Abebe Bikila became the first African to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals in 1960 and 1964. In 1960, he did it running bare-footed. In 1964, he won even though he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and operated on one month before the Tokyo Olympics.

In the 1988 Calgary Olympics, the Jamaican bobsled team made its first debut. Many joked about this team from the tropical nation. The Jamaicans, however, managed to silence their critics and win respect & admiration by finished in 14th place, beating well-established teams like United States, Russia, France and Italy.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, North and South Korea put aside their differences as their athletes march together as a single nation under a single flag. Even though the relationship between South and North Korea was tense, the spirit of humanity shone through as politics took a backseat at the Olympics.

Gabriela Andersen-Schiess represented Switzerland in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a marathoner. She staggered into the stadium 20 minutes after Joan Benoit had won the event. Suffering from heat exhaustion, her right leg was stiff and her left arm limp. She limped round the track, waving away medical personnel and occasionally stopping and holding her head. She collapsed across the finished line as the deafening roar from the crowd cheered her on.

I am very sure the Beijing Olympics will add more fantastic stories to this archive of special moments.

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