Saluting the Fallen: Memorial Day 2026

Memorial Day is a day for remembering. We pause to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country: the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who never came home.

The Olympic movement, and the sporting world as a whole, have always had deep ties to military service. Many of our greatest athletes served in uniform; some gave their lives in combat.

Louis Zamperini, the 1936 Olympian, survived a bomber crash and years in a Japanese POW camp. Mal Whitfield, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, won Olympic gold in 1948 while still on active duty. Billy Mills, a Marine, became the only American ever to win the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Games. Joe Louis served as an Army sergeant while continuing to box to raise money for the war effort, and finally, Pat Tillman left the NFL – walking away from a multi-million dollar contract in the process - to enlist.

Their sacrifices remind us that the values we celebrate in sport: courage, discipline, and sacrifice for something larger than yourself, are the same values that define service to country.

I think, too, of the Olympic Truce, an ancient tradition revived by the IOC to promote peace during the Games. The hope that nations might lay down arms, even briefly, to celebrate what unites us. That hope feels especially important today.

This Memorial Day, I'll spend my time in gratitude: for those who served, for those who gave everything, and for the country they defended. May we prove worthy of their sacrifice.

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