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Alex pretty much answered it for me, scaeagles. Except that I'll go him one further and say that rooting for your city's home team, while admittedly fun, is pathetic ... to the exent most people refer to it as "my team" - as if they have some kind of ownership stake, or are, heaven forbid, PLAYING THE FRELLING GAME THEMSELVES.
Alex makes a good point about a team you are used to seeing play ... but they still HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.
BTW, if 217 of the 640 Chinese Atheletes win gold medals, China will have won ZERO gold medals. Despite the tyrannical MACHINE the Chinese have to churn out Olympians ... the fact remains: Countries don't win medals, Individual Human Beings DO.
As such, I really feel somewhere between silly and shameful when I experience a tinge of nationalistic joy at Americans winning some competition. The competition itself is silly, my personal connection to American atheletes is non-existent, and the nationalism is, imo, contrary to the higher spirit of the Olympic Games.
I am happy for ANYONE who wins. I am happy for ANYONE who can even compete at this level.
And yeah the race was exciting. The Americans were overjoyed, the French were dispondent. Ugh, since - as Alex pointed out - the race was a freaking TIE.
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