[Will88]

If someone added up the US population in the areas where decent winter sports facilities are available, it would probably be about 1/4 of our total population, if that. But still, several nations with smaller populations no matter how we view it, have always done better in the Winter Olympics.

I think the relative popularity of winter sports in different nations is a major factor in how many good competitors they produce for the Winter Olympics. There are all sorts of sports in US to take up kids’ time, sports developed here and those imported like soccer.

[sphinx]

I agree with what you say. I just think Americans should do a lot less boasting than we are accustomed to doing about medal counts in either the Winter or Summer games. We are a nation, God save us, of 330 million people, and we are rich enough to support a lavish sports complex. We do way too much crowing. The European countries have a quarter to five percent (or even less) of our population. The Japanese have less than half. Many of the non-OECD countries can barely afford spare shoelaces, and much of the world doesn't (yet) let the girls play seriously. We ain't proving much to run up the count against that.

From a U.S. perspective, we would be wise to lead the charge to finally end national team competition while we can do it from a position of strength. We are going to look shabby when Americans start grumbling about how China wins four times as many medals as we do. Which they will, in time. And if India ever gets serious about sports -- an open question, I think -- they will win even more. We should have annual world championships in sports whose structures allow for it. In team sports, that should be based on club competition, drawn from normal league play, not national team competition.