“The nation’s standing in the world, let alone the rankings, has probably never been lower, an unpopular president, and a controversial foreign policy fuelling long-standing anti-American sentiment all around the globe.
In the past, Americans could always count on their sporting stars to lift the gloom. But today, even that consolation is gone.
Some attribute America’s athletic decline to the nation’s health problems — and the expanding waistline of national obesity. Others think it may be all to do with the fact that US sports fans are increasingly focused on domestic sport nobody else plays. But it may just be that the rest of the world has finally caught up with the superpower. […] It is worth remembering that many of the stars of other nations have risen with the financial and educational and human assistance of America itself — through universities, gyms and the simple wealth of American resources. Globalisation cuts both ways; it may have undermined American athletes’ pre-eminence but it has enabled other nations’ talent to find a home – and a lucrative career — in America.” Gerard Baker in The London Times.
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