In the past (insert stupid number) of parts of this series I’ve looked at a ton of different sports systems to see if there are commonalities, finishing with the bizarre situation in US Speedskating last time.  And certainly there often are.  Kenyan running, UK track cycling, the former Soviet Union, the GDR, Bulgaria, Australian swimming, the Chinese sports machine.  All had their own approach to the ‘problem’ but approached it or got there in roughly similar ways.In the majority of cases, a combination of large numbers of athletes, access to the sport, incentives of some sort, support, coaching (and often drugs) were part and parcel of consistent sporting success.

This was even true for America which despite its completely decentralized (and often screwed up) approach to sport is often successful or outright dominant, at least in certain types of sports.  There I looked at too much background in terms of geography, culture, economics, etc. all as background for discussing the Big Three sports: football, baseball and basketball.  Of those three, only basketball has been consistently contested at the highest levels.  And there America is simply dominant beyond description.

The main point of discussing those three was not only to show how a decentralized system can still produce but also to point out how those three sports have so massively impacted on other sports in this country.  Their huge incentives and the rest are a monstrous draw for the people who go into sports (for financial reasons especially) and that generally means our large underclass.  Meaning, as often as not, minorities.  Who, as often as not, are physiologically wired to succeed at certain types of sports.

From there I moved to track and field, a non-professional sport that we are also utterly successful in and have been consistently since the early part of the 20th century.  As much as anything some of that seems to be related to ‘overflow’ from the big three.  With a massive high-school and collegiate tradition (meaning, if nothing else, incentives in the form of education), athletes who don’t go into the Big Three still have an outlet.  The monstrous number of events and potential physiologies that can be accommodated allow that many more to potentially succeed.  Subjected to the insane collegiate competition schedule, thy are honed to an edge and go to the Olympics to kick ass.

Continue reading Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: OL’ing Part 1