My 2024 Summer Olympics experience ended yesterday morning when Sloan and I cheered the USA women’s basketball team to a dramatic victory over France in the gold medal game. We were especially invested in the game because a win for the Americans meant that the United States would pull even with China in the gold medal count, a race that Sloan followed with borderline obsession over the past two and a half weeks.

I never watch the Closing Ceremony because I find it too depressing but I will share a photo from it.

Speaking of two and a half weeks, when I look back on the past 16 days, it actually seems like a really long time. That’s not a reflection on the Olympics being boring because they didn’t follow the adage of “time flies when you are having fun” but it just so happens that the Games coincided with a busy and transitional time in my life.

When the Paris Olympics started, I was still working in the office at Washington State University. The Games would then continue through my five days off between jobs, stretch through my first few days at EWU, go strong throughout our entire vacation, and then conclude after we returned to Spokane.

So when I look back on the 2024 Summer Olympics, my recollection won’t center solely on the amazing competition that transpired but also the comfort they provided me as big things happened in my life.

But enough about me, I did want to take a couple paragraphs to allude to the “amazing competition” I referenced above. Simply, I couldn’t get enough of the XXXIII Olympiad. Thankfully, Peacock (NBC) provided me the coverage I craved. The streaming service made it possible to watch all the events live while also making it a breeze to catch any event that you missed. I even enjoyed watching the nightly primetime packages hosted by Mike Tirico. I thought these specials did a terrific job at summarizing that day’s action while telling gripping stories of the athletes.

Looking back, I do have a few favorite performances. Watching Simone Biles achieve redemption after Tokyo was inspiring. Witnessing Noah Lyles overcome a slow start to win the 100M by the smallest of margins was exhilarating. Steph Curry going off in the final minutes of the gold medal game was insane. And then watching both the USA men’s and women’s 4X400 relay teams win gold was competition and guts at its finest.

As I extinguish the metaphorical cauldron of my Don’t Blink blogging series of the 2024 Summer Olympics, I want to once again convey what a pleasure it was to watch the action with my family. We truly bonded together during the Games with nothing beating the joy I felt when we watched them from our hotel room beds each night during our Leavenworth vacation. Bring on Los Angeles in 2028. Don’t Blink.