American chauvinism and the Olympics

[GPDP]

This is kind of a stupid thing for me to get into, since I don't really follow sports that much, but it came up on another forum. Not sure if it goes in Discrimination, either.

Anyway, some liberal girl always goes on about how America sucks, and other, more conservative posters always resent her for it. While her methods are disruptive and she obsesses about France and Sweden and stuff, she often does make the other posters turn into patriotic flag-wavers when faced by her insults.

Well, one of these posters, who happens to be quite conservative, brought up the Olympics, and how we've won more medals than any other country in the world (2404 to be exact, followed by the USSR with 1204 [1531 if you include Russia], and Great Britain with 689). He then suggested that Americans are made of better stuff.

Upon seeing that, I had to call his statement out, and suggested that we just have more resources to train athletes than any other country does. While he did not deny this, he said no resource is better than superior athletes on which to use these resources on.

Of course, this just reeks of some concept of an exceptionalist American master race, so I pointed that out to him. He then quickly backed down, and told me he was kidding around. But I'm not so sure.

In any case, that's just one person. I'm sure this comes up all the time, though. I believe it forms part of that extreme nationalism that so many Americans (and people from other nationalities as well) exhibit, considering themselves a superior people because of better performance in a sport and such.

Am I right, then, in attributing superior athletic performance on the part of a country on the amount of resources used to develop athletic programs? Or is there something else I could say to counter such sentiments of national superiority?

[Winter]

Am I right, then, in attributing superior athletic performance on the part of a country on the amount of resources used to develop athletic programs? Or is there something else I could say to counter such sentiments of national superiority?

I think the main reason is that America is trully a multi-ethnic society.
Many immigrants at one time or another came here and became citizens. Basically, what I am saying is that the U.S. has the opportunity of taking the best athletes of the world and having them play for them.

For instance, the people on the Chinese team, are strictly Chinese, the people on the Nigerian team, are strictly African. But when you examine the America team, they are multi-ethnic, not just all one nationality. Their is no one American race like their is in other countiries.

[Devrim]

I think the point that they are missing is that nobody else in the world really cares.

The world sport is football, which incidentally is the only Olympic sport which gets anywhere near decent attendances, viewing figures.

Who gives a damn if the US has won seven golds so far in fencing, swimming, and shooting. Does anybody watch these things apart from the competitors mums?

How can a team talk about 'superior athletic performance' when their best result was coming third (i.e not making it to the final) in 1930.

Devrim

[Holden Caulfield]

i find it hilarious that they lost at basketball for the last few games, they are the only country to play it pratically,

[mykittyhasaboner]

American chauvinists tend to be morons. and will take anything to the extreme if it involves "America's superiority", not just sports.

Many immigrants at one time or another came here and became citizens. Basically, what I am saying is that the U.S. has the opportunity of taking the best athletes of the world and having them play for them.

to add to this, the US has A LOT of athletes competing in the Olympics. the US has nearly 600 competitors at this Olympics alone, more than any other country.

[Dr Mindbender]

i find it hilarious that they lost at basketball for the last few games, they are the only country to play it pratically,

not quite only, it is also the national sport of the Phillipines. I dare say it is played frequently in other satellites of american cultural influence, like Canada and Japan.

[Red_or_Dead]

I think the main reason is that America is trully a multi-ethnic society.
Many immigrants at one time or another came here and became citizens. Basically, what I am saying is that the U.S. has the opportunity of taking the best athletes of the world and having them play for them.

Agreed. Also, America is, as you said a multi ethnic and a multi racial society. Americans have roots in all parts of the world. How can they be made of better stuff than the rest of the world, when they essentialy are the rest of the world?

Not that any nation or race are "made of better stuff", but the above seems to be something that the Billy Bobs have forgotten.

Also, this pride is somewhat hypocritical; they are proud of their countries achievements, even though those achievements have been made by immigrants. And it is pretty well known how conservative Americans feel about immigrants.

to add to this, the US has A LOT of athletes competing in the Olympics. the US has nearly 600 competitors at this Olympics alone, more than any other country.

Explains a lot. We have 60 or so. Some smaller country (smaller than us, anyway) might not even have half as much.

I wonder how Chinese will be doing in a couple of years. They have a lot of population to choose from.

[Plagueround]

Billy Bobs

That's William Roberts to you, sir.

Its really just another extension of the patriotism and nationalism that's rammed into our heads from the time we're young. Americans are taught to feel superior to the rest of the world. Even the so called left (dems) in this country talk down on other nations constantly (they just tend to veil it as bourgeois Nancy Pelosi style complaints about human rights while ignoring our own mistreatment of the world.). Anytime we question or comment on how bad some things are, the standard rhetoric is "If you don't like it, get out and move to (insert popular third world country to use as an insult here)".

In the same manner, if another country produces an athlete that can beat ours in a competition, we feel as though it matters in some sort of political and emotional context (I've been told this was especially bad during the cold war). Besides, even if America has a shitton of medals, its not as if having the resources to train top notch athletes really reflects on the physical prowess of the fattest nation on the planet.

The comments about football being the true world's sport bring up another interesting point about American mentality.
"If we can't do it well, its because it sucks."

[jake williams]

One, the olympics are fucking pointless, no one sensible cares whether you finish a particular swimming event a twelfth of a second earlier or later. And second, it's likely that industrialized wealthy (not to mention strongly nationalist) countries who can afford to blow money on meaningless athletics, coaching and feeding athletes properly, would do better.

The irony is interesting when you consider foreign-born athletes - Western business and national interests demolish and loot other countries, making American citizenship an attractive option. The wealth gained in part from looting is used to fund athletics programs peopled by immigrants from countries escapting U.S. terrorist warfare, or transnational-corporation funded police. The U.S. then parades about how fantastic it is when these athletes succeed.

[RedHal]

WTF is an American master race and made of better stuff? I love these right wingers, they'll cheer the black man when they represent his America, but he'll never want them marrying his daughter. Know your place negro.

[Decolonize The Left]

One, the olympics are fucking pointless, no one sensible cares whether you finish a particular swimming event a twelfth of a second earlier or later. And second, it's likely that industrialized wealthy (not to mention strongly nationalist) countries who can afford to blow money on meaningless athletics, coaching and feeding athletes properly, would do better.

The irony is interesting when you consider foreign-born athletes - Western business and national interests demolish and loot other countries, making American citizenship an attractive option. The wealth gained in part from looting is used to fund athletics programs peopled by immigrants from countries escapting U.S. terrorist warfare, or transnational-corporation funded police. The U.S. then parades about how fantastic it is when these athletes succeed.

WTF is an American master race and made of better stuff? I love these right wingers, they'll cheer the black man when they represent his America, but he'll never want them marrying his daughter. Know your place negro.

- While I understand what you are trying to communicate, you could have done so with more tact, respect, and integrity.

- August