Team USA

As we settle in for two plus weeks of the Olympics I find myself feeling oddly, well, American. Its a somewhat weird sentiment for me, as I really don't agree with a lot of things America has been doing as of late, and thus I feel a bit detached from the whole, Team USA thing.

But, as Team USA rounded the corner of the parade of athletes on the TV on Friday night, I couldn't help myself from shouting a few USAs. I guess the Olympics does what its meant to do, in some ways at least. It might not be the Cold War, and the world might be getting so much closer due to globalization. But for these few weeks every four years (two if you count the winter games, but seriously, I don't) the nationalism in all of us comes out, at least a little.

The only instance where I have not cheered for the USA since the games opened was in the Men's Cycling Road Race. Mostly because I knew USA had no chance whatsoever of a medal, and I think most of the athletes on Team Spain are incredibly awesome. I was a bit shocked when Sammy Sanchez took the gold, if only because he was the the least talked about of the five Spaniards in the race.

As we move into the first full week we'll have a lot of swimming and gymnastics on the prime-time TV, and just about everything under the sun on the live shows. I'm excited to see how my country does over the next few weeks, although I know that we are going to do exceptionally well, as usual. I'm also eager to see which smaller countries, with newly built Olympics programs, will bust into the limelight with a first medal or a world record. Until then, however, its all about Team USA.