The 2010 Winter Olympics Games

Last night as I watched the final long program for men's figure skating I found myself cheering for the only American worth cheering for on the ice, Evan Lysacek. As I watched Evan perform in the short program two nights ago I was not aware of which country he was skating for or whether or not he was favored to win, but the second I heard he was American and in second place my heart swelled with pride and I immediately became Evan's biggest fan. I knew nothing of Evan's life or ice skating background, but whenever I saw that the American's had a shot at winning the gold I immediately formed the opinion that Evan was the best of the best. And as I watched as Evan performed his routine with the utmost grace and perfection. It was perfection.
And as he stood on the Olympic platform and accepted his gold metal it dawned on me how pompous the rest of the world must think Americans are. As Evan was waiting for the final score to be announced by the judges the camera was fixed right on him, him, and his Ralph Lauren Polo warm-up. Now, don't get me wrong, Ralph Lauren makes very nice, high quality clothes that are made in other countries like Italy and the Phillipines but underpaid, overworked people. And America feeds off of this.
As I watched the games last night I watched the U.S. medal count go higher and higher, and I just thought about how it must feel to be the other countries who are constantly falling short of the most pompous country in the world.

"The US also leads the gold medal count with 6, up one from yesterday thanks for Lysacek's win. Second place belongs to Germany with 4. In addition, the US has the somewhat bizarre distinction of having the most silver and bronze medals as well."

Now granted, we do not win every sport and we are not the only country with an ego bigger than it can support, but we do tend to flaunt our victories and accomplishments quite obnoxiously. Don't get me wrong, if you are an Olympian and you win the gold, celebrate to your hearts content. You won that medal and the world now knows you are the best of the best. But as I sat there with my friends, we all started making similar comments about how the rest of the world must view our country. It was almost as if everytime the national anthem was played there was an ora of contempt radiating from the crowd as if they were all thinking, "Conceited Americans, they think they are the best at everything."
However, this could just be my own perception from the annoyance and struggles that I have with this country, and other countries might not have this view of Americans at all. But I still can't help but wonder what goes on in their minds as we stand, hand over heart, boasting yet again that we are the champions my friends.