It’s ironic that every four years, when this country is in the midst of political campaigns that do more to push Americans into tribal factions than bring them together, we have the Olympics.

For about two gloriously blissful weeks in the heat of the summer, just when the political kettle is boiling, we have an event that brings us together to cheer. Usually.

Now, I have no idea the rules and the specifics of 99.9% of the events I’m watching on my television screen. Fencing in my world requires hedge posts and barbed wire. I’m a landlocked Kansan who has no idea how to sail. And I really am very confused about rugby rules, but I found myself cheering our Women’s rugby team like I was at the Bill Snyder Family Stadium on a fall Saturday when they earned their bronze medal.

I can fall looking at a crack — yet there I was, 5 a.m. on a Sunday, watching women’s gymnastics and cheering on our Team USA. I casually scroll through event results on my phone, and I’ve got the TV on in the background while I work. I’ll flip through the channels at night until I see our American flag on a jersey, and then pause and watch in awe. Buddy, I have no idea how a pommel horse routine is scored, but I’m going to cheer for you.

And the conversations I end up having with friends about our Olympians? None of us could do what they do on the mat, but we all begin critiquing the judo athletes like we’re in the gym with them every day, training. You’ve likely had those conversations too.

The thing is, I look at those athletes on our screens and I realize they have a passion that so many of us might not fully appreciate. They work two — sometimes three jobs — to pay for equipment and coaches in the small chance they can qualify and then bring home a medal.

For some, it’s a lifetime of sacrifice. Years of training and pushing their bodies to the limit. Family vacations spent driving to competitions. And having to explain over and over again that “Yes, Aunt Marge, water polo is a real sport, I just don’t have a sponsor” at reunions.

Well, that was until this year when rap star Flavor Flav stepped in with his own money to sponsor the women’s water polo team.

They don’t compete by themselves, though. I watch their families in the stands watching them, and I get a lump in my throat every time. For us it’s 5 minutes on the screen. For them, it’s a lifetime of hope and dreams in that arena with their loved one.

There are no guarantees in the Olympics. Sure, there’s favorites going into competition, but anything can happen. Derrick Mein, from Paola, Kan., won the gold medal in the trap shooting at the 2022 Shotgun World Championship in Croatia. He was in Paris representing the U.S. in the same event and came away with fifth place.

Still — and I can’t emphasize this enough — he was in the ring. He and others on Team USA got to the big dance, and they put it on the line. In Mein’s case, he literally shot his shot.

To me, the American dream is the Olympic dream. Work hard. Dedicate yourself to a dream bigger than yourself. Never give up.

That’s something we can surely all get behind.