![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/olfire.jpg\")
After
\n two weeks of pageantry and drama the Olympics are over, and we are sorry
\n to see them go. Our hat is
\n off to the genius who decided to stage the Games every four years on
\n the same timetable as the American Presidential elections. He or she certainly deserves a medal. Lord
\n knows we need the reminder, example and escape of good, clean, above-the-board
\n competition in the midst of the crass and craven cutthroat display of
\n political cynicism and savagery which our quadrennial election cycle
\n has become.<\/p>\n
The US took home 103 medals in all, more than any other
\n nation, and an improvement on our results from four years ago in Sydney. However,
\n there are a couple of notes of caution in that rousing result, which
\n may not bode well for future events. First of all, for the first
\n time since the reinitiation of the Olympics in 1896 the US men did not
\n win a single team competition, a category that includes baseball, basketball,
\n volleyball, gymnastics, tennis doubles, handball, soccer, water polo,
\n badminton and table tennis. <\/p>\n
In sports like soccer and baseball, the US men’s team didn’t Of course, it is not surprising that we would win so many However, the last time we looked, teamwork was also a quintessential Another note of caution is to be seen in the results of The scariest part is that they left many of their best The Chinese Olympic surge is logical and inevitable. After The next Olympics, like the Munich Olympics of 1936, are However, let the Dowbrigade go on the record here and story from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After two weeks of pageantry and drama the Olympics are over, and we are sorry to see them go. Our hat is off to the genius who decided to stage the Games every four years on the same timetable as … Continue reading
\n even QUALIFY, let alone medal. And what’s up with Basketball, eh? <\/em>We owned
\n <\/em>that sport, since the day Dr. Naismith nailed a peach basket to
\n the side of a barn, and this time had to struggle to win a bronze<\/em>?
\n Not a good sign.<\/p>\n
\n medals in individual sports. The concept of rugged individualism
\n is under US copyright. Individualism is ingrained in our society, and
\n our ethos and economic system allow for individual athletes to strive
\n and suffer in well-supported solitude, with state-of-the-art individual coaching, nutrition
\n and motivation to hone their skills into World Champion range.<\/p>\n
\n American quality and part of the secret of our success. In fact, it was
\n perhaps our unique and novel national synthesis of individualism and
\n teamwork, qualities which can easily work to weaken each other, which
\n delivered us to global preeminence in the 21st century. Is it time to
\n wonder if the pendulum has swung too far towards rampant individualism,
\n team-be-damned, and as a result we have lost our edge in group activities?
\n Is individualism out of control?<\/p>\n
\n the Chinese team. Once an awkward giant, a nation of peasants and agricultural
\n communes, happily content with obscure oriental sports like mahjong and
\n morning calisthenics, China has rapidly climbed the rankings and in Athens
\n earned a strong number two ranking, only three gold medals behind the
\n US.<\/p>\n
\n athletes at home. Chinese authorities decided to bring a team of teenagers
\n to
\n Athens, trying to get them invaluable world-level competition as they
\n prepared for the 2008 Beijing games, eschewing more medals now for world
\n dominance four years down the road. <\/p>\n
\n all, the have the largest talent pool on the planet, with, statistically
\n speaking, four or five Paul Hamms and Mia Hams for each one we can field. And
\n with a regimented and disciplined population and government support,
\n they have been combing the ranks of five and six-year-old kids for the
\n specific athletic talent and drive needed to reach the medals stand.
\n Add science, nutrition and state-of-the-art training methods to natural
\n talent like that, and it becomes unstoppable.<\/p>\n
\n set to serve as the coming out party for a rising world power bent on
\n asserting what it sees as a historical imperative – world dominance.
\n Whether that desired dominance will be entirely in the sports, political, cultural
\n and economic spheres, or like the Nazis will bleed over into the military,
\n remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
\n now as predicting that in Beijing in 2008, the Chinese will displace
\n the Americans from the top of the medals charts. Whether that
\n will be a wakeup call or the death knell of the American century is
\n an open question. Between China vs. the US at the Olympics, and Hilary
\n vs. Jeb on the home front, 2008 is shaping up as a watershed year.<\/p>\n