#558 USA!USA!USA!

 Fun Fact #558

USA! USA!USA!

Good Morning everyone, so last night The Fun Facts had a bit of a Mutiny n the Deburr area and thus we will return to the Romans in a Future week (hopefully).Thus without Further ado –before I'm forced to walk the plank– here is “Why the US (mostly) dominates at Sports.” 

Last week the 2024 Olympics wrapped up with 126 medals being awarded to The United States Of America –35 more than the next closest competitor (China had 91). Yet how was this feat achieved? Well in short competing with others is one of the great American pastimes, thanks to our Nation’s origins as 13 separate colonies instead of a unified culture. As the colonies grew Britain tried to encourage growth among them by forcing them to compete with each other to turn a profit and encouraging them to develop different colonial identities from each other. In some cases this worked such as sections of the North becoming dominant in trading goods like lumber, furs, textiles and ore, while the south had made more profit from agriculture. Yet for some of the smaller colonies or those with industries too small to directly compete, they instead turned to Smuggling to make up for the gap. 

While it was thought this would keep the Colonies divided, it instead helped train them how to compete in the affairs of State before they entered the world stage in The Revolutionary War. Their smuggling and piracy connections helped with hiding from the authorities as they moved and supplied, while their negotiation skills helped secure aid from the Spanish, French, Netherlands, and many more. Worse yet those differences between the States that Britain worked so hard to foster, made it harder to infiltrate, and/or force a surrender since if one area fell another 12 still stood to back them up. 

Finally after the war ended the States went back to competing against each other keeping their separate identities and even forming new ones as new states joined the Union. Heck this actually was written into the Articles of Confederation themselves …. Until this competition got a little too out of hand leading to the creation and adoption of the US Constitution just a few years later. 

Thanks once again for reading today's fun fact, I hope you have enjoyed. Please don't Throw me overboard (you gosh dang Mutineers), and I hope you have a wonderful day.