This may be un-American
First off, allow me to apologize - up front - to those of you who may find this blog’s content offensive.
I’ve been glued to the Olympics because I absolutely love watching sports competition at the highest levels. I’ve been stunned and dazzled by the athleticism, determination and sheer power and will of the Olympic competitors. Win, lose or draw, you have to admire their tenacity and their love of the sport.
What bothers me is the unrelenting focus on which country has won the most gold medals. My goodness, NBC (and other news outlets) have been busy beating their breasts in sorrow at the United States having garned less gold medals than China. The way they’re going on about it, you’d think that it portended the fall of Western civilization as we know it. GET OVER YOURSELVES!!! It’s a sporting competition, for God’s sake. All it means is that, for this Olympics, at this point in time, some of "their" athletes were better than "our" athletes. All it means is that they trained harder, or had more natural talent, or that the stars favored their efforts at the moment of victory.
What it doesn’t mean is that we, as Americans, are lesser people than the Chinese. It doesn’t mean that our way of live is worse than theirs. It doesn’t mean that the Chinese have more moral fiber than we do. We are ALL human beings - each of us with our fears, foibles, feelings and imperfections. That is the way of the world. Why can’t we just sit back for two weeks and watch the world’sbest compete against one another without the prognosticators tying the fate of the world to the outcome. When lives are on the line, then I might think that these competitions mean more than they do. Until then, I’m going to marvel at the physical ability on display.
August 18, 2008 at 9:00 pm
You do know that the sports portion of the Olympics died in 1936, at the Berlin Games. The Olympics now is political first and athletic second. It’s all about garnering prestige.