I promise, no more endless bits about sociology and American sport. In Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 13 I gave the final necessary background to understand some of the screwiness of sports in this country including a look at gender issues along with the amateur professional issue. Frankly, given how messed up the system is and given the nature of the Olympics and the requirement for amateur status, it’s amazing that America does anything at the Olympics. Yet we do. Quite a lot of something actually. Let’s start with the American sports ‘system’.
The American No-System Sports System
As I discussed at some point last week, the US is very decentralized. The spread of our country, the local pockets of culture, the immigrant nature of our people keeps pretty much everything in this country from having much overall consistency except existing under the same flag. Case in point, laws can vary drastically between different states. … Keep Reading