{"id":1863,"date":"2012-08-14T17:44:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/changingchannels\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2012-08-14T17:47:13","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T21:47:13","slug":"american-athletes-inspired-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2012\/08\/american-athletes-inspired-at-olympics.html","title":{"rendered":"American Athletes Inspired At Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Michael Phelps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I forgot where I first saw the\u00a0 question, but it has certainly stuck with me:<\/p>\n

Does it really matter what nation wins the most medals at the Olympics?<\/p>\n

Ummm…I’ll take that one … YES!<\/p>\n

Of course I am an American and am very proud of my nation’s athletes, including the swimmers, gymnasts, basketball players, water polo competitors, track and field stars and anyone else I am neglecting to mention.<\/p>\n

That point aside, it DOES matter that the U.S. captured the most gold medals and the most medals overall because we are a free nation.<\/p>\n

I am biased toward our system, and have taken hits for that but you know what:<\/p>\n

KEEP ‘EM COMING!<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the fact the U.S. got more medals than a state-run nation that withheld information from one of its athletes about a grandparent’s death.<\/p>\n

That was the wrong thing to do and showed an athletic program out of whack with it priorities.<\/p>\n

We’re a nation of mostly very good people that more often than not do the right things for the right reasons.<\/p>\n

So congratulations U.S. … and keep those medals coming so we can keep count!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I forgot where I first saw the\u00a0 question, but it has certainly stuck with me: Does it really matter what nation wins the most medals at the Olympics? Ummm…I’ll take that one … YES! Of course I am an American and am very proud of my nation’s athletes, including the swimmers, gymnasts, basketball players, water…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6,4,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","category-politics","category-sports","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Athletes Inspired At Olympics - Changing Channels<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2012\/08\/american-athletes-inspired-at-olympics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Athletes Inspired At Olympics - Changing Channels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I forgot where I first saw the\u00a0 question, but it has certainly stuck with me: Does it really matter what nation wins the most medals at the Olympics? 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Of course I am an American and am very proud of my nation’s athletes, including the swimmers, gymnasts, basketball players, water…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2012\/08\/american-athletes-inspired-at-olympics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Changing Channels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-14T21:44:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-14T21:47:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/changingchannels\/files\/2012\/08\/michael-phelps-w2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mattaug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Athletes Inspired At Olympics - Changing Channels","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2012\/08\/american-athletes-inspired-at-olympics.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"American Athletes Inspired At Olympics - Changing Channels","og_description":"I forgot where I first saw the\u00a0 question, but it has certainly stuck with me: Does it really matter what nation wins the most medals at the Olympics? 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