Wiston Papers

The Olympic Games 2012 as Metaphor for America

The Olympic Games for decades were a showcase of American athletic talent and dominance.  It was a fitting metaphor for America’s preeminence in other areas such as politics, economics and technology.

Perhaps then it is not surprising that the uneven performance of Team U.S.A. so far in the London games of 2012 matches the undeniable decline of America on the world stage that stretches far beyond the Olympics this year.

The four legs of the U.S. men’s 4 X 100 Freestyle Relay represents all too  accurately the history of America from World War II to the present.

FIRST LEG

Swimmer Nathan Adrian explodes into first place as the gun barks the start of the race.  Much as the United States emerged from the Second World War as the leader of the free world.  Washington in the next 20 years flexed her muscle fighting for the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe, stopping the spread of Communism beyond Eastern Europe, and helping to create the United Nations as a forum for international debate and decision.

SECOND LEG

Adrian retains the lead for the U.S. team as Michael Phelps enters the water.  The joy of Phelps’s earlier swimming victories reminded us of the the optimism that marked the start of the 1960s in America with the  the Camelot presidency of John F. Kennedy, his charismatic family, and his pledge to place a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.  Although the Vietnam War would hang over American society, social protests challenge our conventional wisdom, and the U.S. would be buffeted by economic turmoil as we entered the 1980s, we  hung on to our image as the leader of the free world much as Phelps held America’s swimming lead for Cullen Jones.

THIRD LEG

Just as President Reagan made the nation feel good again and paved the way for the heady economic days of the 90s  and helped lead the free world's celebration of the collapse of Communism and the former Soviet Union, Jones kept the hope of a U.S. swimming victory alive as he held America’s lead for Ryan Lochte.

FOURTH LEG

Despite a strong start, however, Lochte failed to maintain the lead he had received just as America has failed to protect its legacy as a beacon of political, social and economic superiority.  Just as Lochte saw France gradually catch up and eclipse him at the end of the race so has America watched as other world players such as China, India and Brazil have caught and surpassed us by encroaching on our foreign and domestic markets, taking U.S. jobs off shore, and displaying Washington’s weakness to respond to the challenge--much like Lochte’s fade at the end.

The Olympics Team U.S.A. metaphor for America’s stature in the world may not please some fans of our athletes or those who still believe in the socio-politico-hegemony of Washington.  But one fact is indisputable--we no longer can claim superiority or invincibility either as athletes or as a political, economic and social power.  

At the end of the Olympic Games 2012, however,  the U.S. will be able to stand proudly in London and elsewhere in the world as we compete in other fields.  But we no longer stand alone and that perhaps is how it should be.   

Steve Coon

July 30, 2012