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By the time you read this column, the Olympics will be underway.

They’re being hosted in Paris, France this year, scheduled to last until August 11. Many of the best athletes from all over the world will arrive to compete at the highest level in their sports. Like any good sporting event, the event will be filled with amazing feats of strength, miraculous triumphs and upsets, and the agony of defeat. People will be pushing past their limits to see how far they can go.

I love watching the Olympics every four years. Of course, the pandemic put a little bit of wrench into the scheduling for the 2020 event. It was held in 2021 instead, but that just meant that we only had to wait three years for this one. Time flew by, didn’t it?

I just think it’s fun to see the wide range of sports on display each time. It ranges from sports like basketball and soccer that we’re all familiar with on a regular basis to others which are pretty much only witnessed on TV during the Olympics, such as canoeing, water polo, table tennis, and archery.

Gymnastics, track & field, and swimming are all pretty popular events, even though most people don’t follow them competitively during non-Olympic years.

In recent years, the Olympics have added things like skateboarding as a sport, acknowledging its growing popularity. And this year, they have even added breakdancing (though they’re calling it “breaking”). I’m especially excited to watch that competition this year, just to see how it will turn out. I’ve always thought dance would be a fun sport for the Olympics to include.

But, really, I’m a people-watcher at heart. So it’s always the athletes more than anything else which catch and hold my attention.

Everybody is different. Some have always been on the path to the Olympic stage, training from an early age in their chosen sport and dominated all the way to the top. Others have overcome all sorts of obstacles over the years to continue competing, and it’s heartwarming to see them succeed and heartbreaking to see them lose.

There are some athletes you love to hate, and others that immediately draw in the fans. Some are cocky; others are humble. Quick interviews showcase who is shy and who loves the camera. You get invested in familiar names that pop up every four years, and it’s sad to see when they decide to retire. But new names quickly rise to take their place, and the cycle starts all over again.

I’ve enjoyed reading news coverage about the Olympics the past few months. There are so many things that go into an event this big. They have to, for example, coordinate construction on whole new athletic venues and then schedule events perfectly so that they can all be completed in the time allotted. And some venues bring unique challenges. Competitions that include outdoor swimming, such as the triathlon, are supposed to be held in the Seine River this year. But the river has long been polluted and swimming in it had previously been banned for over a century. The city has been working to clean it up since 2015, but no one is quite sure yet if it’s clean enough for competitions, even though recent water tests show improvement. The Mayor of Paris took a swim last week in the Seine just to prove it’s safe.

Hopefully, those competitions will be held without any problems, and it’s great that they’re finally making an effort to clean up the pollution. (Too bad it took the Olympics for it to happen.)

The host city has to build housing for the athletes too, and that can come with its own set of problems. I remember reading weeks ago that the Olympic Village this year doesn’t include air conditioning. They are using another method of cooling the buildings, but some countries were concerned that the temperatures will remain too high and are bringing their own portable AC units instead.

Travel arrangements are also an important thing to deal with, since people are coming from all over the globe. And it’s not just the athletes themselves. The equestrian teams, for example, have to fly their horses out to the event. I learned from an Associated Press article that the horses even require passports to fly, and they don’t usually mind the trip. They’re provided with bedding and food and water, and they mostly spend the flight just standing around. They even experience a bit of jet lag afterwards, like people do.

No word on how they get through security though!

One other interesting story I read was about how some Olympians balance parenting with competing. The Olympic Village includes a nursery this year, so that the athletes can choose to have their children closer with them during the event. This is a change from the last Olympics which had stricter pandemic rules to exclude family accompaniments.

Family can be one of the most important sources of support during a competition, so it’s nice to see an increasing emphasis on ways to make it easier for parents to enjoy these moments with their kids while also trying to win a medal.

To me, the Olympics are a lot of fun to keep up with for a few weeks. I can’t think of any other event that draws together so many people from around the world. No matter what’s happening in our country or other countries, we can watch athletes compete together in (mostly) friendly competitions.

Good luck to all the competitors this year, especially Team USA! I’m looking forward to an entertaining few weeks ahead.

Holly Taylor is a staff writer for Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact her at holly.taylor@r-cnews.com or by phone at 252-332-7206