I am so glad to have this chance to see all the work that you're doing to prepare for the games here. In the magic of the Olympic moment, it may be easy for those of us who aren't part of it, except as spectators, to lose sight of all that had to be done before. Obviously, we love athletics. But I think there's even more to it than the love of competition and athletics. People are valued based on their performance and their effort, not their posturing.
People get a chance to do their best, and also to bring out the best in one another.
And everybody, including those that don't win medals, is better off for having tried, in giving his or her best. You win by playing by the rules, and by doing it well. I think we like the Olympics because we all think the world ought to work that way. And we know if other forms of human endeavor worked that way, we'd be better off. One of the reasons I ran for President eight years ago is that I thought that Washington ought to work more like that.