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Maybe I've got a wrong impression but I've never seen huge mobs of American fans supporting their national team, in whatever sport.
I come from a country where number one sport is ice-hockey and our fans are always present at a big amount, no matter in wich country the world championship occurs in that particular year. Some organized groups will go and support our team even to Vancouver olimpics in February.
It seems Americans are much more into supporting their particular city's or region's team and the concept of the national team is quite vague for you guys.
Never having been interested in competition sports at all, my answer is no. I have no idea who they even are or which sports have a national team. Or which states. Or cities. Or schools. Or what they play. What's an NFL?
I do like the skin suits the US female downhill ski team wears, though. Pretty colors. Plus they ski faster than I do. That's cool.
I'm a pretty big sports fan, but have about zero rooting interest in US teams.
I really don't know why.
Perhaps because the 'big event' is the Olympics which comes every four years and it's hard to catch my attention with something that happens every four years.
I support our "Houston Roller Derby Girls"--they just back from the "National Championships" in Phylidephia, representing Houston. and not word in the paper, TV or Radio. These are actually Ladies that live in Houston. They also pay their way with garage sales, bake sales, and car washes. They are non profit. but get little if any Support. They are just girls right?? This next season will be their sixth year, and are growing stronger each season.---I care nothin of "hied gun pro Houston teams", that don't even have Houston players on the Team.
I think we tend not to support our national teams because we get more involved with, for lack of a better term, local operations.
Also, after the 1976 Olympics, when that Bulgarian referee robbed our team of the gold medal in basketball, I believe there's a lingering mistrust for international competitions.
I think we tend not to support our national teams because we get more involved with, for lack of a better term, local operations.
Also, after the 1976 Olympics, when that Bulgarian referee robbed our team of the gold medal in basketball, I believe there's a lingering mistrust for international competitions.
I get pretty riled up for the Ryder Cup in golf, I like to see the Americans win there. Davis Cup in tennis too, to a lesser extent. I think Americans do ok with getting behind their olympic athletes, I was in a sports bar in Chicago when Phelps was winning his golds and the place was going crazy over it.
I think the fact that professional sports are so established here that it waters down the olympics to many of us. A weekend of college/NFL football can usually top 2 weeks of olympic excitment for most of us out here. China does not have an equivalent, do they? I'm sure there are professional sports there, but nothing to the extent we have here, so it makes sense that China seems so much more interested in winning medals. Ask a Chicago Cubs fan if he would rather have the Cubs win a WS, or the Americans dominate the downhill slalom (whatever its called) next winter olympics.
The obvious one also is parents who recognize kids athletic ability will push them toward one of the more mainstream sports, as it is a better career choice. Seriously, with all due respect to Gymnists, I would not want my daughter to go through all of that at age 14 or whatever.
Rooting for the USA is a lot like rooting for the New York Yankees. We have all the money to spend on athlete development, and it seems kind of spoiled to keep winning all the time, so I don't root for the USA.
A also have a few personal irons in the fire. I have an Olympic medalist in my family, who represented the USA for reasons I don't admire. Ben Agosto could have become a Canadian easier than Tanith Belbin becoming an American, so they could have skated together for Canada. But would Americans have rooted for them just the same?
Also, my mother is from Lithuania, so I was proud that the Lithuanians beat the NBA all-stars in the Olympics.
But quite honestly, I did not watch a single minute of Olympic coverege, and I will continue to not do so. Sadly, American television rarely (if ever) shows an event unless there is an American favorite participating in it, and then often shows only the performance by the American. The American Olympians are on TV every Satuday afternoon, but it would be nice to see some more of the other great athletes from around the world.
ESPN en Espanol showed the World Series in a separate telecast, presented from the global perspective, and it would be nice to see the Olympics covered that way.
Maybe I've got a wrong impression but I've never seen huge mobs of American fans supporting their national team, in whatever sport.
I come from a country where number one sport is ice-hockey and our fans are always present at a big amount, no matter in wich country the world championship occurs in that particular year. Some organized groups will go and support our team even to Vancouver olimpics in February.
It seems Americans are much more into supporting their particular city's or region's team and the concept of the national team is quite vague for you guys.
True, wrong?
Oh, we Americans can be zealous about our sports, but as you observed, we DO tend to root harder and be more passionate for our hometown teams that for our national ones. The reaosn is two-fold: 1--the sports that we have national teams in are simply not our favorite sports--for most of us at least. Our national teams--teams that play teams from other parts of the world--are soccer and ice hockey, mainly, right? Well, as they say here in the U.S. : "Soccer is the sport of the future. And it alwsys WILL be." LOL.
And hockey--while it does have a rabid core of fans here, is only the number four team sport in our country, in terms of popularity, following distantly behind football, baseball and basketball.
2--You Europeans are simply CLOSER together than we are to anyone else! Thus it's easier for you guys to travel to other countries to see sports. It's like us travelling from, say, L.A. to San Francisco for a game--and we do THAT sort of thing all the time, especially for college sports. In fact, I think European rivalry is comparable to our brand of rivalries. Like our Texas-Oklahoma or Michigan-Ohio State college football.
America is so big and the sports we like best have professional and college leagues here in such abundance that we simply are content with that for the most part.
Oh yeah, and about our basketball team as a national sport. The reason we don't get all jazzed-up over THAT is because we dominate so strongly that its sort of a yawnfest. In fact, I liked it better when we fielded college kids in the Olympics instead of our NBA guys. More competition.
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