Month: August 2011

In Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 19, I looked at a bunch of different factors related to cycling including how racing developed in the US (mainly crits and time trials) versus in Europe.  I finished by look at single day races called the classics and want to continue from there.  Because while the single day races were hard enough, grinds of 70-200km over horse-tracks, that wasn’t enough.  Someone decided to intensify the stupid and that led to the development of the tours.

The Minor Tours

Because after guys got bored trying to murder one another in a single day race over horse-tracks in the classics, some guy got the idea of holding multi-day events and the mini-tours were born.  Usually 3-7 days of racing including multiple road races and usually including a time trial as I described yesterday.

At this point, the racing had moved to something Americans didn’t get and couldn’t follow; at least in the classics it was fairly simple racing even if it was still boring as hell because of the length. … Keep Reading

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

So in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 17, I talked about basketball and finally wrapped up an altogether too long look at The Big Three sports in America and how they interact with our overall sports system, culture, etc. Primarily it was to show how those sports exist in a ‘system’ more or less identical to most of what’s come before. Massive numbers, huge traditions, access, coaching, incentives. The same story told again and again.

Mainly it was relevant to this overall series because, if they do nothing else, the presence of The Big Three in this country, along with their importance to American sport tends to dilute the talent pool for other sports. All three share certain characteristics in terms of strength, power, explosiveness, etc. to varying degrees and with so many athletes wanting to pursue those sports, that means less great athletes to go into other sports with the same requirements.… Keep Reading

And finally I want to look at the third of the ‘big three’ sports in America and that’s basketball.   Another American invention, basketball is unique in that it is played by many other countries and has been for quite some time.  More relevantly to the overall point of this article series, it has been part of the Olympic program since nearly the beginning.

This allows me to look at the US both in terms of basketball locally in terms of its impact on American sports as a whole as well as the whole sporting dominance thing.  And trust me, you’re going to see  a new definition of dominance in today’s piece.   It’s also, mercifully, shorter than the previous two parts on football and basketball.  Giving nitpickers time to read this.

And with that out of the way, let’s play some Basketball.

How the Game is Played

Basketball is played on a court, generally wooden at most competition levels although many courts are invariably concrete. … Keep Reading

Having looked at football yesterday in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 15, I want to get the taste of the idea of a French Football League out of my mouth by moving on to baseball which is often referred to as the American Pasttime. Americans invented the game in the early part of the 20th century and people are crazy for it in this country even if it is pretty much dull as dirt to watch.

We have more movies about baseball in this country than I can name and baseball scandals hurt Americans in a way that is hard to describe; as i mentioned we still haven’t gotten over the 80 year old Black Sox Scandal, Pete Rose (aka Charlie Hustle) is a still a pariah for gambling while he was playing and I’m not sure what will happen when the steroid issue is finally resolved.… Keep Reading