Posted on 08/19/2016 6:39:27 AM PDT by TigerClaws
President Obama dismissed "American exceptionalism" a few years back saying all countries believe they are the best.
Let's look at the evidence from the Olympics. A country of 300 million is dominating sport after sport (gymnastics, swimming, etc.).
Not seeing NYT articles on, "Why We are Better." What is it about our culture that drives our people to be the best in the world at sports?
Well, sending a 500+ person squad tends to help a little bit.
Well, allow me to play devils advocate. We have a larger population than most countries in the world, so it follows somewhat at least, that we’d have better odds to produce great athletes. Just look at the size of the Olympic teams in Rio compared to our contingent.
That said, it’s about wealth. More money for everything. Better trainers, better training facilities, the ability to train year round, the ability to make your sport a full time job, etc..
Just look at how many athletes from other countries that have won medals (many gold) that have:
a) Gone to College in the US
b) Train in the US with Americans training them and
c) Live in the US.
There are several Russians, Jamaicans and a few others that I’ve noticed in the short time I’ve watched.
Weren’t most of the Russians barred because of doping or something? They are usually our main competitors.
Americans don’t have to use excess energy just to survive.
And a lying idiot who disgraced us all.
I think we just love to fight.
https://www.rio2016.com/en/medal-count-country
21% US, 47% Europe.
They claim a total medal count of 2,102, but that doesn’t divide by three, so who knows.
It's fun to cheer for our own and, personally, I always tear up when the Star Spangled Banner is played. But one reason NBC's coverage of this and previous Games is unwatchable is their uncomfortable and out of character jingoism and near exclusive focus on the American athletes.
When ABC was the Olympic network the coverage was broad based and genuinely interesting to watch. Then again Wide World of Sports gave them the crew, contacts, resources, and global sports format to pull that off.
“Well, allow me to play devils advocate. We have a larger population than most countries in the world, so it follows somewhat at least, that we’d have better odds to produce great athletes. Just look at the size of the Olympic teams in Rio compared to our contingent.”
OK. I looked.
China has a population four plus times that of the USA - and their athletes are virtually professionals. I.e. they do not have other jobs, they work fulltime trying to show the world how glorious Communist China is.
They have 56 medals, or to make it fair 13 if you divide their population by four.
No worries...
American SJWs will be calling for an equal distribution of those medals amongst ALL nations.
Everybody wins.
-PJ
Rush Limbaugh sums up well what American Exceptionalism really is.
The population of Great Britain is 64 million, and they have won 56 medals.
Does that make Great Britain more exceptional than the United States?
The United States was considered "exceptional" because it was self-created at a time when other nations were either ruled via conquest of the strong over the weak, or were hereditary dynastic monarchies that sustained through inter-marriage between nation-states.
The United States was "exceptional" because it was the only nation created by a social compact amongst the people to live within the guidelines of a constitution and its derived laws, established by the people with the consent of the governed. Power was transferred via non-violent means, and the people adhered to that social contract.
People today don't remember (or were never taught) why the phrase "American Exceptionalism" came to be.
-PJ
Terrific accomplishments by so many USA athletes.
ofc the UK, with 1/5 the population of the USA, is running a strong second in the medal count, so they are punching way above their population weight.
India, otoh, with 1/6 of the entire world’s population, doesn’t have any medals..... but they are still a mostly poor country with few strong sports training traditions.
Correct, they are the exception to the rule. But how many professional Chinese athletes do you see in the major sports of the world?
NFL
NBA
MLB
NHL
Soccer
Yao Ming. Next?
Looked up an interesting site which calculates medals per capita. The US is only 40th on the list. Check out
http://www.medalspercapita.com/ for fun.
There’s also medals per GDP where USA is in the 60s, and weighted medals per team member, where USA is third, oddly behind number two North Korea.
I’m hoping Britain can surpass China to get second in the medal count, so we can say truly that the Anglosphere Rules!
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