Olympic hockey

The women's USA hockey team was the best team, and barely scratched out a win in the finals.  The Canadian men's team was the superior team, but the USA also scratched out a win against the odds.  I enjoyed watching.  When I lived in Hudson, WI nine years ago, I was friends with now Olympion hockey player Tayler Heise's grandparents.  She wasn't the star of the team, but was one of USA'S best players.  

Go USA.

Yup, great accomplishment by both teams.  US also set national record for their most gold medals.

I love both summer and winter Olympics.  Summer is my favorite.  I'm an X runner and especially like track and field.

Given that we're by FAR the richest and most populous nation that has substantial territory where winter is cold enough to foster winter sports, we damn well SHOULD win pretty much every gold medal. 

Do a population vs. gold medals comparison with Canada, or Norway, or Switzerland, and you'll see that we've been dragging our feet. 

But I'm not nationalistic and would never be caught dead chanting USA USA USA! I watch and admire the figure skating, ski jumping, tobogganing, etc. and I don't really give a poop what country anyone's from. A great performance is a great performance even if AMURRICA is getting smoked.

How about what we're truly happy about is the peace, goodwill, and cameraderie that exists during the Games? Does it matter that much what country "wins"?

They moved the California HS State Track meet up to the Fresno area a few years ago.  In the early 2000's to about 2012 they were in Cerritos.  That was a blast to go see.   Got to see Allyson Felix just light it up before she became an Olympian, as well as many others.  Good stuff.

Side Note-  The United States Women's High Jump record holder, both indoor and outdoor, went to the middle school were I have taught the past 27 years.  I came to Central MS, in Riverside, the year after she left.   

My alma mater, the University of Oregon, is heavily into sports. Its football team is always in the top 20 or higher, but its real shtick is track and field. The Olympic trials are held there, and Eugene is known as "Track Town."

But here's the thing. In 2009, the U of O spent $186 million on a "special library," in its own building, just for athletes. I assume that it was stocked with books that had lots of pictures and no big words. That same year, the coach of the football team got a raise to $8,500,000 a year, which was exactly 100 times the salary of the highest-paid faculty member.

That year, annual tuition was increased by $2,000. Dorm housing went up by $1,500.

"College sports" is an oxymoron. That's not what universities are supposed to be for.

Oh, and exactly eight university sports programs in the country operate at a profit (all very small schools).

Yes it does matter who wins, Kevin.  It's a competition.  And it's nationalist because these athletes represent a country, many wearing the name of the country on their uniform. 

There are some of us that are actually proud to be American, and many, like myself that are proud to be German American, Mexican American, Asian American, etc., and we root for more than just 'Merica.  And I root for Germany as much as I do America.

But ultimately it is a competition where they keep a medal count (By Country), so in some respects it does matter what country wins.

We see your take on this, and I appreciate your candor.   

German is my Heritage too on both sides of the family. My family came over in the 1890s and settled in Indiana. A road in a now surban area of our third largest city caries my family's German last name as they created that road in the area they initially settled. When I was a kid and went to the big family reunions, I rember the elders of the family (then in their 60's - 80s) spoke fluent German as they grew up in households where that was still the first language.

I get a kick out of visiting the next county over as they are really big on their German heritage and they are very MAGA  and very anti-immigrant. When you talk to some of these folks their complaint is yeah what we don't like is they don't adapt  to the American culture they fly Mexican flags, speak Spanish, listen to music in Spanish and their food is everywhere.

Now as I said these folks are really big on their German Heritage. German flags fly attached to their street lamps and alongside their county seat's flagpole. The county courthouse flys an American and German flag. There are numerous German restaurants that serve German food, they have a big October fest style event where people dress up in lederhosen and they play German music. In their secondary schools often the only foreign language offered is German. A lot of the businesses and street signs play on that German Heritage such as the German American Bank. 

There seems to be a real disconnect as they don't recognize their own hypocrisy. Most of the Hispanic immigrants in my area are first or second generation arrivals so of course they listen to music in Spanish, eat food from their home county and prefer to speak their native language. 

Yet the big German community still has all of this German heritage stuff even though the folks in this county no longer have direct family connections in Germany and they no longer have any grandparents that still speak German as a first language. 

The point being they haven't fully integrated either even though 98% of them don't speak German. I think we all hold on to our heritage to a certain extent even when we are far removed from our families' arrival in this country. 

Take a look at the phrase "proud to be an American." Is being an American anything you did? It's like saying "proud to have been born." 

I would say that those who became Americans via immigration and naturalization have a legitimate reason to be proud. In their case, it's a genuine accomplishment.

So I truly don't understand why watching "my team" win should make anyone proud...but here's what would make me proud "for" my country: if our ethos, our values, our laws and principles caused us to do good in the world. 

Unfortunately, not only has Trump completely blotted that out; he's distorted and misrepresented our values in order to do genuine evil.

Does it matter?  To me it does.  Something to do with pride in the belonging to something.  

Most of us grew up cheering our school sports teams to win.  It teaches...something.

Marching bands compete.  Choir groups compete.  Students develop special projects and compete.  

We want to win, winning is the thing, but we learn to win and lose with grace, because not everybody can win.

I want to cry when any figure skater or skier or any competetor falls or otherwise bungles their performance.  The effort they've put in, perfection in a dozen rehearsals.  Then the fickle finger of fate gets a say.  

But it is not possible, for me, to not be a bit more happy when "my" country wins a medal.

Candy