Is it cheating for the USA to be good at every sport (except soccer) or at least be represented in sports it has zero history or cultural association with?
Disclaimer: this is one of our weaker winter olympics, no biggie, only New Hampshire, California, a sliver of Nevada, New York, Maine, Vermont, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, a sliver of Virginia and North Carolina, possibly the Dakotas, like a single mountain or two in Arizona, New Mexico, and Ohio get like enough snow to cultivate skiing talent and of theses states only New York, Utah, Colorado, and California have dedicated programs for cultivating skiing talent (NH, Vermont, and Maine need to devote more resources to cultivating local talent).
How is it the USA can get good at speed skating, curling, cricket (I am going to include the non-winter sports), fencing, judo, figure skating, modern pentathlon (the cool version with horses not the cucked obstacle course version that will debut in 2028), rugby, monobobsled, water polo, and many more.
Apparently the only Olympic sports where the USA has never won a medal are badminton, handball, and table tennis. Is it cheating for the USA to tap into its massive population and immigrant heritage to be dominant in so many sports? Like why don't other big countries like India, Mexico, the Philippines, etc tap into their expat population and try to attract the losers (i mean this in a technical sense meaning they lost NOT as an insult or value judgement) of the USA.
Bonus question: why dont Arizona and New Mexico try to cultivate bobsledding talent? Like I could see Albuquerque being a cool city to start up bobsledding and build like some artificial bobsled slide.
Posted Feb 15, 2026, 8:37 PM UTC