"What you strive for is to do the best that you can do, that day and that moment, " explains two time gold medal figure skating champion Dick Button. "If you do it just for the pay, it's not going to be satisfying. But if you love what you're doing, you just really want to do well, " he continues. Even though the games are a competition, Olympic rower Cecile Tucker remembers most a sense of "common spirit " among the participants. As often as she is asked to describe it, A.J. Mleczko "can never [do] justice " to her feelings after winning the gold medal in women's ice hockey.

Since the first modern Olympics in 1896, when the U.S. team was mostly drawn from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Harvard has always been a part of the celebration of amateur athletics. One of the most notable part of the games for Harvard alumni is the opening ceremonies. Tony Brooks recalls that "the environment was electric, it was alive ". While David Hawkins, who swam for Australia in the '52 games at Helsinki, found himself overwhelmed in the presence of teams from so many different countries, A.J. Mleczko remembers feeling a part of "team U.S.A." for the first time at the ceremony walking in matching clothes with the rest of the contingent from her own country. For Bill Cleary, the greatest experience was hearing the loud cheers as the American team walked out.

One of the clearest memories for the Harvard alumni there was the futuristic Olympic village built in Munich, which on the eighth day of the games became the backdrop to an international tragedy. Rower Charles Hewitt recalls being with the New Zealand team, whose apartments were next to the Israeli's, when the Black September terrorist group broke in. After the massacre, in the spirit of the Olympic games and in line with the wishes of the Israeli contingent, the decision was made not to cancel the games. Instead they were suspended for a day, during which a memorial was held at the stadium, an event Hewitt remembers as "remarkable ". Yet even with the memory of Munich in mind, as a rower in the Athens games, Michelle Guerette still saw the Olympics as an "amazing display of human capability, human possibility ".