The Olympics is the most famous sports competition in the world. The winter version of these events, the Winter Olympics, is a multi-week set of countless competitions of all kinds of winter sports, featuring the best of the best of each. An avid fan could spend countless hours watching sports such as figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding and more. 

Watching the Winter Olympics is not only a great way to pass time this winter but can also offer an encouraging lesson through the athletes’ amazing skills and the Olympic organization itself.

Carter Nye, ‘24, said, “I love watching the Winter Olympics because it motivates me to work harder in the sports that I play.” 

Not only is watching the Olympics thrilling, but for many similar to Nye, the Olympics can boost morale and motivation to set and achieve goals. Simply watching talented athletes is inspiring. It goes to show that anyone can achieve their goals through hard work, dedication and a positive attitude. 

Aside from the motivational aspects, the Winter Olympics is also a spectacular competition to keep up with because of the organization’s five core values.

According to the Olympics, these values are “joy of effort in sport and physical activity”, “fair play”, “respect for others” , “pursuit of excellence” and “balance between body, will and mind.”

This message can not only be applied to Olympic athletes but students at Minnetonka High School as well. The five values can be applied to academics, athletics and society as a whole. The Winter Olympics portray a thought-provoking and necessary message for high school students to put one hundred percent effort into everything they do and to have fun while acting respectfully and fairly.

Minnetonka High School’s motto is to “do the right thing and represent us well.” This means that students should show respect to one another, act fairly and put in their best effort. In sports, students should apply these principles by playing fair and treating one another with respect. In academics, this is applied by achieving academic success the right way through dedication and hard work.

As one can see, these lessons from this past winter’s Olympic games can not only apply to athletes, but to everyone in the Minnetonka community. While the games may not return until 2026, all MHS students can focus on living their values until then.