From: julianlzb87@gmail.com   
      
   On 09/02/2026 00:19, Tara wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   > Fragile U.S. psyche faces trial by sport in Milan
  	  
  CATHAL   
   > KELLY
Milan
Published 8 hours ago
Updated 8 hours ago
   
   €©â€©â€©â€©â€©Â  	  

In the   
   > continuum of human stupidity, there are few more extreme contemporary   
   > examples than boxer/influencer Jake Paul. Stupid is his business, and   
   > business is good.   
   > 
Paul is here at the Olympics following around his crush, American   
   > vice-president J.D. Vance. The pair attended Saturday’s U.S. women’s   
   hockey   
   > game together. 
Paul is also acting as volunteer komissar, policing the   
   > political affiliations of his countrymen.
During a presser, American   
   > freestyle skier Hunter Hess talked about the vibe back home. 
“It brings   
   up   
   > mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now,â€� Hess said. “Just   
   because I   
   > wear the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the   
   > country.â€�
When said in Hess’s Jeff Spicoli drawl, you’d have to be   
   trying   
   > to be very offended by that. Paul was very offended. 
“From all true   
   > Americans,â€� he tweeted at Hess. “If you don’t want to represent this   
   > country go live somewhere else.â€�
Cathal Kelly: Something funny happened   
   > when Canada played Switzerland: it was an actual competition
Obviously,   
   > someone who gets hit in the head for a living shouldn’t be taken too   
   > seriously. Then Paul went on a date with the second-most powerful person in   
   > America. So maybe that’s not obvious anymore. 


America’s been   
   coming   
   > apart in a broken-family sort of way for a while. The rest of us are their   
   > unlucky neighbours, lying awake at night listening to them fight. 
This is   
   > different though. Shorn of home-field advantage in Milan, forced together   
   > with all the friends they just ghosted, you can really see the cracks.   
   > 
From Vance being booed at the opening ceremony, to NBC playing state TV   
   > and erasing it, to American athletes being pressed hard on how it feels to   
   > play for a country no one likes any more, what strikes you isn’t that   
   it’s   
   > happening. Chinese and Russian athletes are used to provocative political   
   > questions at big international events.
The difference is that the Chinese   
   > and the Russians have muscular responses at hand. Like them or not, they   
   > know where they stand. The Americans have no clue how to talk to strangers,   
   > because they only discuss serious matters with like-minded Americans and   
   > about America, if at all. That there is a world out there with its own take   
   > on things befuddles them (i.e. “go live somewhere elseâ€�).


When   
   skiing   
   > star Mikaela Shiffrin was asked about the America problem, she started,   
   > stopped and said, “I can read something I had written, if you guys don’t   
   > mind.â€� Then she rattled through what sounded a lot like a poem she found on   
   > Instagram about ‘peace’. 
This is America’s new crisis of   
   confidence, and   
   > it has nothing to do with being beset by the world’s problems, as happened   
   > in the 70s. It’s realizing in real time at the Olympics that everyone else   
   > thinks they are the world’s problem. You won’t find that on NBC either.   
   > 
There’s only so many patriotic montages you can hide that behind. The   
   > Olympics aren’t a sports tournament. They are a biannual reminder of how   
   > much you matter in the world. America’s always been the coolest kid in the   
   > cafeteria, win or lose. You know that because they are the constant topic   
   > of village gossip. They still are, but no longer in a good way. 
Cathal   
   > Kelly: Canadian to the core, Sidney Crosby’s legacy is already   
   > untouchable
Because of that, the sports end of the Olympics suddenly   
   > matters a lot. That the American team will win a bunch of medals is a   
   > given, but will they produce great moments? Will they come out of the Games   
   > projecting strength, rather than the confusion they’re giving off right   
   > now?


So far, so not good. Their great story of resilience was meant   
   to be   
   > 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn proving that no one can keep American can-do’ism   
   > down. That lasted one turn into Sunday’s downhill final. 
After Vonn’s   
   > horror crash, cameras panned through the audience to catch all the   
   > Americans – who still insist on dressing for international travel like   
   > George Washington holding a sign out in front of the Valu-Mart – looking   
   > stunned. 
Then they focused in on the eventual winner, Breezy Johnson, who   
   > is also American, sitting on the throne reserved for the person in top   
   > spot. 
Johnson had an excruciated look on her face – am I allowed to be   
   > happy right now? Should I be sad? – that captured the current   
   > American-in-the-world vibe. 


This pastiche went on forever. Vonn on a   
   > stretcher – cut to Johnson squirming – cut to Vonn being strapped   
   > underneath a helicopter – cut to Johnson glazing over. 
The person   
   > directing the international broadcast was doing their best Sergei   
   > Eisenstein – saying with images what cannot be said with words.   
   â€©Everywhere   
   > else in the world, America is always on top. You could stand any foreign   
   > leader beside any deputy underwhatever of the U.S. State Department, and   
   > you know who’s actually to the fore. Not here. 
At the Olympics, America   
   is   
   > one among equals. When the bad guys were the other guys, that was a buddy   
   > story. Now it’s turning into a karmic beatdown. Everyone else wants to see   
   > them fail, and they know it. 
If that means their nice, young athletes have   
   > to lose, well, too bad. They’ve never been worried about our nice, young   
   > athletes, or anyone else. 
Milan is the beginning of America’s trial by   
   > sport. Five months from now, they host the World Cup. Their president will   
   > actually be “atâ€� that tournament, every day for 56 days. I’m sure   
   it’s   
   > going to go great. 


Two and a half years from now, America hosts the   
   next   
   > Olympics, in L.A., just as the Donald Trump era is ending. 
Based on how   
   > things are going, could you see a world in which other countries decide to   
   > take a pass on that Games? Not a boycott, necessarily. More a pause that   
   > refreshes. See you again at French Alps 2030. Of all possible insults, none   
   > would hurt or say more. 
There is also a world in which getting low-key   
   > shamed here and elsewhere convinces just enough Americans to change course,   
   > and that by 2028, things are starting to head in a better direction. But I   
   > doubt it.   
   https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTaJBWVDfNc/   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)