My Final, Final, Thought on the Beijing Olympics

I know. I know. I said I was going to transition to other sports outside of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

But what Thomas L. Friedman says something about the Games and about sport, you have to listen and maybe comment.

That's what I'm going to (try) do here. And I promise it's the last time and this won't be long. Why? Cause I'm going to let Friedman do most of the talking.

If you haven't read it yet, Friedman, in today's New York Times, talks about how the United States has fallen behind China--and not just in the medal count.

I guess what many people have failed to see (or maybe they did see, but they don't understand it) is how important these Games were to the Chinese.

Yeah, it was their coming out party. Yeah, they kicked America's ass in the gold medal count. Yeah, everyone was super excited. Sure, China spent $40 billion on the Games.

But this just isn't an anomaly and whatever happened in Beijing the last three weeks doesn't just effect sport. It effects the global community. It effects the power struggle. China is on the verge of becoming a fucking superpower and one with four times as many people as the current world superpower.

So while Peter Ueberroth is trying to come up with a plan to compete with the Chinese again in four year's time, the United States government needs to come up with a plan to just not fall behind the Chinese--something that Mr. Friedman talks about.

And then again, all great empires come to an end. All great societies lose their special place in the world. Part of me says that depending on who wins this Presidential election in November, we'll see the beginnings of U.S. power and ability to sway world opinion wane.

But, the English are just fine. So are the French. The Germans look pretty good too. And the Japanese have probably the most vibrant of economies. All were world or regional superpowers at one point or the other. Why can't the U.S. just follow suit?

Because that's utterly un-American and because what's at stake is more than just a handful of gold medals.