There’s Still Nothing Like the Olympics

There’s still Nothing like the Olympics

The Olympic Games, even in our age of cynicism, divisive social media, and AI, remains an event that is unparalleled in our world today. We still get chills when we watch the opening ceremonies of an Olympics, and we did so once again when the great Andrea Bocelli was singing from the stadium in Milan as the Olympic Torch passed by. The Winter Olympics have a special place in our hearts thanks to our youthful memories of heroes such as American …

SUNY Downstate’s Dr. Riccardo Bianchi carries Olympic torch through his hometown

On a January morning in La Spezia, a city tucked in between Genoa and Pisa along Italy’s Ligurian coast, Dr. Riccardo Bianchi jogged down a stretch of a road he had known since childhood, with an Olympic torch burning steadily in his hand. For a few unforgettable moments on Jan. 9, Bianchi was not only a neuroscientist, educator, marathon runner or Brooklynite by way of Italy — he was a link between past and present, hometown and adopted home, c…