American media always glorifies athletes in various sport events before their performances. Maybe other countries do the same and it could be understandable since everybody want to win. But the Americans go to all lengths to start celebrating even before the event happens.
This leads to enormous pressure on the athletes and false hope to the rooting public. And, huge disappointment in the case of loss that happens frequently.
Case in point, Simone Biles star gymnast. She won gold medals in the previous Olympic games, made a name for herself, turned pro and made a bundle of money. She made the Olympic team for Tokyo but was not able to present stellar performance as accepted and hyped. She withdrew from the team competition, and gave a chance for someone else to take her place.
This was the fair thing to do. We all have to realize that she is human and not a gymnast machine. Similar things happen in other sports. Baseball for instance. This is a typical American sport yet, on the international fields other countries are better than the US. Cuba is a baseball powerhouse and so is Japan. And where are the Americans? Nowhere! And so is the story with basketball.
I can understand that the expensive professional club players are not taking part where in the Olympics because they don't want to chance injury and to their owners the club victory is more important than the Olympic games, but where does that leave the American prestige?
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