Having looked at US success in track and field and swimming in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: part 18, I’m going to change gears (ha ha) a bit and look at a couple of exceptions that exist in the US in terms of this whole issue of sports and what we’re good at or have been good at. Because while most seem to think that all I’m doing is repeating the same information (and to a degree I am) the exceptions to some of the ‘rules’ that appear to exist are often more interesting.
The first exception I want to look at is US cycling and there are a number of reasons to examine it. An occasionally seen argument is “Everyone said the US couldn’t win the Tour De France and we did that and therefore anything is possible, including an American doing well in OL’ing” and it’s worth seeing if the situations between the sports are at all similar or comparable.… Keep Reading