The Problem With The Summer Olympics

I’m going to start this by saying that in retrospect, the Winter Olympics aren’t all too much better, although my points are not as valid when talking about the different versions of sliding.

As of this writing, the United States has 29 total medals through the first five days. The next closet is China with 21 total medals. Japan is in third with 17 total medals. Rounding out the top six is Russia (14), Great Britain (12) and Italy (11). I’m all for America flexing some power and showing that we are the greatest in the world at what we do, but let’s be real. The Summer Olympics are really just a United States/China fire fight. Most of the time, the United States comes out on top.

If we are looking strictly at Gold medals, the United States isn’t so far ahead of the pack. They have 10, China sits in second at nine, and Japan in third at six. America dominates the Swimming scene. China dominates the gymnastic scene.

The biggest joke of the games is Basketball. I mean, come on, 48 out of the top 50 players in the world are from America. They are absolutely wrecking the other teams by over 50 points. Why Basketball is still even an Olympic sport is so far beyond me, that I could probably find the answer to if Ted ever gets married to Robin in How I Met Your Mother before I figure out why the Olympic committee let’s a sport that has no real competition in the games.

I get it, I really do. America wants to feel important when the rest of the world really just hates us. But we forget about that for three weeks every four years when we show the rest of the world that we are the best at everything. As a fan, having little to no competition is no appealing to me. I can love the sport, but sometimes sports are just not entertaining. I don’t quite know how complete domination can be fun to watch for anyone. Then again, this could also be why rating’s in America are the worst that they have ever been.
Photo Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times