The United States actively promotes the world of competitive sports, showing participation in a field of athletics ranging from team sports such as American football and basketball to combat sports and more. While U.S. sports flourish in popularity and prevalence in terms of a domestic standpoint, there is a misconception regarding its level of competition compared to the rest of the world.
Popular professional sports sanctioned in the U.S. fail to translate effectively into monetary (and therefore cultural) value compared to other countries internationally, particularly in Europe. In regard to soccer, for example, MLS (Major League Soccer), which is the dominant men’s professional soccer league in the U.S., is overshadowed by the Premier League, the highest level of the English football league system. According to World Sports Network, from the 2017-2018 season, the Premier League — predominantly through sponsorships, prize funds, ticket sales, broadcast deals, and player sales — generated revenues of 6.04 billion dollars, compared to MLS’s 1.02 billion dollars (wsn.com). There are several factors contributing to MLS’s inability to compete alongside top soccer leagues around the world, but the overarching causation resides in the fact that the overall skill level of the players in the league is inferior, making it unappealing to much of the audience, so that they do not tune in to watch the games.
Similarities can be seen in baseball, which is considered to be the national sport of the U.S. The country is comprised of a long list of hall-of-fame players and a league that is at the forefront of all baseball organizations around the world. Nevertheless, the U.S. national baseball team consisting of the best American players in the MLB lost to Japan in the 2023 Baseball World Classic Finals, according to World Baseball Classic (mlb.com). Furthermore, according to CBS Sports, out of all the World Baseball Classic that were held — five events held between 2006 and 2023 — the U.S. was only able to take home one title in 2017 (cbssports.com). While the popularity of professional baseball is immense in the U.S., the talent of the players doesn’t reflect correspondingly when competing against foreign nations for the world champion title.
On the other hand, the U.S. exhibits superiority in the Olympics. According to World Population Review, the U.S. has the most Olympic medals, claiming a total of 2980. Additionally, there are no countries other than the U.S. — 1180 gold medals — to have won at least 300 gold medals thus far (worldpopulationreview.com). While this might seem impressive, people have to take into account that there’s a large contingent of Americans who have the opportunity to partake in sports at an early age, unlike many poorer countries. Also, its previous rivals, the Soviet Union, had to discontinue competing due to political issues. According to the National Post, “…the USSR has won more gold medals and more Olympic Medals total than any other country except the United States” and 13 out of the 18 games in which they competed before their collapse in 1991, they were the number one medal contender. Furthermore, “The U.S. has been sending athletes to the Olympics 86 years’ longer than the Soviets” (nationalpost.com).
The NBA (National Basketball Association) is acknowledged as the most competitive basketball league in the world. It encompasses the best players — the majority being U.S. players — who dominate the league and demonstrate to their fans why they are the superstars of the game of basketball. Having said that, the U.S. recently failed to compete at their best level against international countries. In the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Club, the United States lost 113 to 111 against Germany in the semi-finals and 127 to 118 against Canada in the third place, according to the official website of FIBA Basketball (fiba.basketball). Senior Jack Stodolski said, “I don’t think they had [U.S.] the best players out of America. I know they had players like Jaren Jackson, Jr. and Austin Reeves, but they didn’t have LeBron James, Stephen Curry, or Kevin Durant, so that could’ve been a disadvantage for the U.S. team.”
In spite of the fact that the U.S. may not be superior in many professional sports, people should appreciate the vastness of the sports industry offered by the U.S. that enables them to indulge in televised or in-person competitive sports. The United States has plenty of notable sports achievements to pride itself on, yet must not fall into the trap of assuming that athletic fame equates to champion status worldwide.