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rightaway
 August 05 2024
During the two weeks of the Summer Olympiad, US Citizens get to see the greatest stage on earth.  But it is NOT for the reasons you might think.  The Olympics show evidence that the United States is the most successful attempt in the history of the human race to combat racism and create opportunity.  We consistently crush the medal count, and, for those open-minded enough to see it, it is our success in creating diversity that has made our success the norm for the last 40 years.  Before delving into the argument, it's crucial to address the prevalent misconceptions. Systemic racism, for many, is a deeply ingrained belief akin to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' It's time to dismantle these false notions and embrace the counterargument that truly explains why the USA consistently outperforms other nations in the Olympics. Myth 1: The USA spends more than anyone else.  Although not true, people insist that we are paying our Olympians.  In general, we aren’t.  French and Belgian athletes have stipends from the government.  The USA doesn’t do that.  It is our amateur athletes who take the most medals, not the basketball players and the like.   Myth 2: We have more athletes, so we should have more medals.  Look at the chart below.  Per capita, we don’t make the top 20 for athletes per capita.  Look at actual athlete participation numbers.  The US sent 594 athletes; France sent 572.  Based on their argument, we should have a couple of percent more medals than the French, discounting home-field advantage.   Look closely.  We already have 50% more medals than the French, and our greatest strength – Track and Field – has barely started. We might double them up before the events are finished.  Their home-field advantage and athlete stipends aren’t resulting in better outcomes.  There is something else that is causing these outcomes.  Myth 3: Not everyone can send people to the Olympics. For perspective, 184 countries are participating this time. The USA currently has 26 bronze medals.  Countries 6 thought 184 don’t have a total of 26 medals!  To state again, our third-place finishes are better than all finishes in 178 of the world’s countries.  This isn’t a numbers game.  It is a quality game.  What do we have that other countries can’t compete with? Where are our differences most pronounced? The answer lies in our diversity. In sports, the United States sends the best athletes. Because of our professional sports, we have no racial blinders when it comes to selecting the starting quarterback or centerman on the hockey team. The best guy (or girl) gets the job.  When they aren’t the best, we replace them with someone who has done the work and is better.  We offer no guarantees to our athletes.  Our culture says, “we don’t care about your skin color.  You need to be the best to get the job,”  Our standards are public knowledge, and attendance at tryouts reflects this.  The sidelines at our college sports reflect this.  We are blind to color and embrace diversity in sport like no country that has ever existed.  We have done the best job on the planet at not seeing color, and the Olympics prove this like no other place.  Everyone can see it with their own eyes; they don’t need a diversity officer to see how we select our athletes.  The best athlete gets the job; nothing else matters. It started for us that way, and it remains that way.  When I look at the original dream team from 1992 for basketball, it is nearly a mirror image of the current women’s soccer team in 2024.  All skin colors are on the roster, and the best athletes are playing.  For certain, the same can be said of our track and field athletes.  Our teams are rich with first and second-generation immigrants, and all of them have found the freedom to practice and do the hard work that the rest of the world does not offer.  We are an order of magnitude ahead of the world when it comes to giving athletes a forum to learn, practice, and compete.  Our inner cities produce fantastic athletes, as do our farms and our suburbs.  Rich schools and poor schools alike send athletes to be a part of TeamUSA.   It is of great interest to note where other countries have caught on to the US’s idea. France’s soccer team looks a lot like the US Track and Field team. The French roster is rich with first—and second-generation immigrants and their diversity of skin color makes them look like a US team. And they are dominating—they dominated the USA, for that matter. Good for them. I have been a casual observer of the Summer Olympics since the 1990s.  The USA always has the most medals, no matter where the venue happens to be.  For all those people who think that the USA is systemically racist and needs an overhaul to make things right, let’s agree to open your eyes and look at the results in forums where people’s fame and fortunes are made to see that your belief is unfounded and wrong.  The United States is the greatest experiment in self-governance in the history of the human race.  Paris 2024 is another piece of proof along the way.

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