There’s just something about watching the Olympics with your kids. Sure, there’s the physical dominance, seconds shaved off world records, and the Gold Medal Count, but that’s not what matters — not to families. It’s the hug of a coach (who happened to be dad), the handshake and a shared Gold Medal between competitors, and the honest and earned perseverance through physical and mental trials. The Olympics shows us all what it means when humanity steps up and gives them what it’s got. Excuse us, while we fire up the reruns and restream it all with the kids.
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Olympic Sports Your Kids Can Play Right Now
Feel the Olympic spirit? Get out there and get going with these sports with the lowest barrier of entry.
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Table Tennis
Table tennis really boils down to the mental table tennis game in psyching out opponents by creating a unique serve or delivering a lightning-quick hit. If you don’t have table tennis equipment at home, pick up a retractable ping pong net that attaches to most foldable tables to set up a game at home anytime.
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Soccer / Handball
If there is a soccer ball or beach ball in the house, and you’re crafty enough to create a makeshift goal, then you have officially conquered two Olympic sports at home. Soccer, the time-tested beautiful game, will challenge one’s endurance, speed, communication, and that pesky “no hands” rule. If the kids would rather throw than kick, handball, essentially soccer with your hands, requires the same ingredients. Every part of your body above the knees is fair game to get the ball in the net. Dribbling is completely legal, too. Why hasn’t the sport taken off in the States already?
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Trampoline
“Can you do a cool jump?” should be all it takes to ignite this backyard Olympic try-out. Kids already think the couch beds, and your favorite chair are trampolines, so why not give them execution points while they’re bouncing around? Just, you know, keep a watchful eye. Trampolines are, after all, a massive safety risk.
Check out more sports your kids can start up — today.
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This history of the Olympics is inspiring as can be. Bring the kids along for the ride.
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I did it for me, and I was happy to be able to compete one more time.
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Hell yes.
The Olympics offered up some more inspiring moments than any 10 Pixar movies. Here are the must-watch events. Fire them up in full, for the first time, or again and again.
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A Shared Gold
High-jump is the most thrilling field event no one watches. This year, the men’s high jump gives us all a reason to, thanks to a shared gold and an italian hug. Heart warming.
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An Olympics First
Women’s BMX came to the Olympics this year and — boy did it thrill. The physical prowess was beyond, the ups and downs in rankings more dramatic than a Super Bowl, and the graceful taking of a silver, a lesson for life.
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Teamwork, With the Competition
We get it, watching 145 miles of road racing doesn’t exactly sound like must-see TV. In the 2020 Tokyo men’s race this year, it was. You can thank two men (an American and Ecuadorian) taking off early (and we do mean early) to work together for gold. One got it, the other… didn’t place. When they hug it out after, its clear that gold matters less than the getting there.
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Women’s Gymnastics
This team got all the headlines and deserved every last drop of attention. If you haven’t watched every last second of women’s gymnastics — from the silver without Simone to Sunisa’s gold performance — you are very much missing out on a story that transcends sport.
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They are so strong. They can lift heavy ... fings.
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