Oh boy, the Winter Olympics are going again. Skiing, skating, snowboarding, they should cancel school so we can all stay home and watch.

That was sarcasm by the way.

I remember when I was younger and the Olympics were a huge deal to me. I would actually watch them and be interested in almost all of the events.

The only time I’ve watched the Olympics this year was to put me to sleep late at night. But it’s not that I no longer like the sports involved because I never have. I could care less about things like speed skating and alpine skiing.

I’ve always just craved the competition, and seeing the United States do big things and pull big upsets. But this year is different.

Every time I have the TV on, the announcers can’t stop talking about the U.S. athletes. Obviously they have to but the amount of bias they bring just isn’t right.

In a time when we are trying to come together with other countries to take a stand against things like terrorism, I feel bad watching a fierce competition that is separated by countries.

In a way, I guess I should be enjoying this even more because of all the patriotism that has surfaced in the last few months. But I would rather cheer for and follow all the countries, seeing as how our relationships with them are especially vital at the present time.

The mindset of the Olympics – due in large to the media covering them – is pretty much Us vs. Them. While at the same time, the mindset of our countries is aiming to be more along the lines of unity.

Some would argue that bringing all of these countries together for some healthy competition is good for us. I used to agree with that, but things should be different given the current situation.

One thing the terrorist attacks did was to put certain things into perspective, especially sports. But the sports within our country have gone on without a hitch because it is America moving on, enjoying their lives and embracing all the wonderful things this country provides.

The Olympics dangerously brought in people from all over the world to come to our recently attacked country just to see which country can win more medals. Extra security or not, the fact that the Olympics are going on actually scares me.

That’s why I just don’t care. I would rather watch Americans take on Americans in more exciting sports like college basketball, because I’m not distracted by the whole countries against each other thing.

I’m not saying that the Olympics should be canceled. It is a long-running tradition in the history of the world, but maybe it’s not a bad idea.

Organizations like the NBA have brought in the best in the world to play basketball, but they don’t separate each team by what country they are from. It’s just the best of the best mixed together providing great competition. That is much more appealing.

This is the case with all of our professional sports now, and these are the sports that are most popular during the Olympics anyway. So what’s the point of the Olympics? To see which country has the best figure skaters?

If people want to gather every four years to see which country can ski down a hill the fastest, fine. Just keep it the hell away from me.

I’m going to stay focused on sports that are driven by competition and pure enjoyment. Not sports that are driven by which country is better.

Though we did sweep the male snowboarding this year dude; I’m stoked.

Kyle Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communications from Urbandale.