It’s been 96 days since the Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London and I’m ready for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi in 449 days.

I’m having Olympic withdrawal and I miss the camaraderie that comes with rooting for a country, rather than a team from a city in your country.

Don’t get me wrong, I love rooting for my respective teams in South Bend, Green Bay, St. Louis and so on, but it’s not the same as rooting for a country.

For the few weeks of the Olympic Games, all of the Bears and Packers fans, Yankees and Red Sox fans, come together to root for the United States or whatever country they choose to support.

There aren’t any more rivalries in this country when we’re watching the Olympics. Everyone is rooting for the platform diving duo, swimmer Missy Franklin, or the men’s archery team.

There’s so much hatred for other teams when the Olympics aren’t played that it’s better and more fulfilling to watch a country go for a common goal.

Don’t tell me your jaw didn’t drop when gymnast McKayla Maroney stuck her vault in the team final.

Don’t tell me you weren’t throwing Tiger Woods-fists in the air when the U.S. women’s soccer team came back to beat Canada.

Don’t tell me you weren’t running around your house chanting “USA! USA! USA!” when Jen Kessy and April Ross advanced to the women’s beach volleyball final to play their U.S. counterparts.

Don’t tell me you weren’t on the edge of your seat cheering on the 4×100-meter free relay team as France started catching up the U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte.

Don’t tell me you didn’t watch fencing and think they were performing on the set of “Tron: Legacy.”

Don’t tell me you weren’t enamored by the athletes and the individual stories that came out of the Olympics.

Don’t tell me you didn’t have the live feeds streaming on your work computer every day, and then rush home afterward and turn on NBC or its family of networks.

The Olympics are magnetic. They are tough to forget when you have to go back to being a normal sports fan watching your team every couple of days or every Saturday or Sunday.

Life is better when sports are on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and when everybody you know is rooting for the same country you are.

The Olympics are when the U.S. is most patriotic because we love sports and our country. We especially love it when the two come together and create a baby that is the Olympics.

This happens when the gymnastics team goes to Worlds, when the soccer teams participate in the World Cup, and in other instances, but it’s never as big as the Olympics.

And I miss it.

Alex McNamee is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].