There is nothing quite like sitting on the couch with friends watching the Winter Olympics. Of course during the 1,400 days in between the Winter Olympics, we care little for the athletes or the sports. Biathlon, bobsled, curling, luge, skating, skiing and ice hockey dominate conversation and primetime network television for a few weeks in February every four years.
The notable exceptions are figure skating and ice hockey, and they hold declining popularity in the United States. If hockey were that popular in Canada, Phoenix, Ariz., wouldn’t have taken the Jets from Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1996.
As Jerry Seinfield quipped in his stand-up routine, the measure of fame is every minute; the podium goes from gold to “never heard of the guy.” But every two years, we glue ourselves to the television set to watch everyday Americans compete in mostly rare, although historical, athletic events. The answer to why must lie in pure, unadulterated nationalism.
Not many people have heard of or will remember Pete Fenson or Shawn Rojenski of the U.S. curling team. I doubt many Americans outside of Minnesota know exactly what curling is and would have a hard time realizing what was going on at a curling match – if that is what they are even called. We watch because they are Americans, and they’re on the U.S. curling team.
America has proven to be the dominant superpower. Its military is overwhelming in scope and technology and, according to the Economist, spends almost half of what the entire world spends. Its economy is larger than every other country’s by trillions. Its higher educational system – we’ll casually overlook the educational system at large – supports the finest universities in the world, finer even than the old universities of Europe according to most reports. Still, we want to be bigger and better in everything, so we must dominate sports.
Despite the fact that only Canada and the United States have teams in major league baseball, we call the championship game the World Series and the winning team the world champions. NFL Europe plays the World Bowl, but those playing are usually farmed there from NFL teams to develop talent. Nowhere in athletics are there competitive, popular, legitimate world champions by country save the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, and by God, America wants to dominate those too.
We won’t pretend to know our competitors or our competition except by nationality. That isn’t to say all Americans root for the home team, but we do root by nationality. No longer is the Cold War fought on sports fields in lieu of war fields like the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” but the spirit of defeating countries is still there.
Since the former Soviet Union’s Unified Team in 1992, no team has won more medals than the United States. Although their supremacy is not as shining in the Winter Games or because of it, the Olympics gives other countries a chance to compete with America in fields that have little to do with our economy or war machine.
I urge everyone to check out a little of the Olympics. The concept of the biathlon – skiing and shooting – sounds a little bit hokey, but biathletes are true athletes nonetheless, and the Americans will need all the help they can get to defeat Norway. Who thought someone would ever say that?
 
Lake is a history senior. Contact him at [email protected]