"The United States and China" at the Olympics.

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There are many additional facets to look at in the U.S. / P.R.C. political relationship at this point and this calls for a possible re - examination of the stereotypical Olympic athlete, in all evidence talented but clueless, who might test his / her physical and mental toughness at places like Long Beach, CA, before reporting for international competition every four years.  The thing that is odd is this duel will continue in another two years, primarily as a pre - cursor to the next Olympics events, at the World Championships wherever they will be held - competitivity and bragging rights again about things like sports medicine, training methods, practice techniques and the like. 

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That the P.R.C. has overridingly made the choice to emphasize anew itself in the international political arena via the Olympic medal vanguard is odd and embarrassing for a nation - state that can not tie its shoelaces with simple things like an actual and real social safety net, human rights, nepotism, and other obvious defects including the single - party political system it operates under that stems from a severe reaction to the aloofness and carelessness of royal and imperial rule that came to an end in the early 20th century.  The current Chinese regime ends up looking politically more like that imperial regime of old in the way it establishes society's priorities, structures its accession and polity in the areas of administration and governance in the overall and again, overrriding will to power that any sociologist or anthropologist will caution against in its many forms as established and institutionalized by the CPC through its by - line of "spirit, land, energy."  The happenstance of the stilted and conjured, and otherwise celebrated, Olympic achievements and accolades, and this without examining every statistic, of the P.R.C. at this point capture a place in history certainly, though the importance of this is to make one wary of the application of the ways one makes championship athletics happen:  The implications of the showing of Olympic commercial spots on NBC at these 2012 events as featuring a past soviet - bloc gymnast, and the actual story of Ms. Nadia Comenici are compelling and an object lesson in what can drive national policy on the subject of athletics and international achievements and awards to the extent they are completely devalued by the constant banging away at young people about how there is a requirement to have medal status or other high international recognition.  Such a politicization of athletic achievement detracts from the simple and non - professional, and honestly - competition - driven status in international athletic venues at this point.

When we were kids, and as we read the local newspaper and talked with our buddies about what goes on in Russia, and what went on in places like East Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and so on, and even given the paucity of the news about the soviet bloc at the time, young people in the States knew how the ambitions of the communists and non - aligned countries had politicized much of the international scale and scope we learned about without respect to occasional, actual news that came through about it.  The realized vaulting ambitions of the P.R.C. policy - makers about their place in international athletics is a softer version, and therefore more palatable for some right now, of the social engineering of the soviets that has gone to the dust bin.  It is incredulous how this is allowed to supplant the honest efforts of athletes in other countries such as U.K., Germany, England, France, and even the Russian Federation right now, and the assertions of P.R.C. on the athletic stage in many ways at this point are dependent upon un - civil ideas and practices that are undue and inappropriate given the peaceful, forthright and unified attitude of many of the athletic teams at the 2012 games this year.  Media images.  Please pardon typographical errors here. 

THS