2016 Olympics and the World of Sports

As an American, I am excited about the 2016 Olympics...now that it has been narrowed down to four cities (Chicago, Rio, Madrid, and Tokyo)...I can't help but be excited about the prospect of seeing many great competitions among the worlds greatest athletes in various sports in our own country. Yes, I know we had Salt Lake City (Winter Olympics) and Atlanta...but I feel 2016 can be done on a whole other level; yes, even better than Beijing.

I had the pleasure of living in Chicago for a few months in 2007 and I can honestly say that it in terms of logistics, travel, safety, and fans, it is a great location for the Olympics

Now here is my concern. I have just recently returned from a five day trip to Madrid where people there are just as excited...actually...a lot more excited about the prospect of it being held in Madrid.

I was visiting a few friends from the States who have settled in Spain, and on numerous occasions we got into little tiffs with the locals about this topic. Now, this is just my personal opinion but I felt that the Spaniards were just on a whole 'nother level when it came to defending their country and why it is the best city for this (and why it is the best in the world, but thats an argument for some other day). 

I wondered about this for a few days and through my experiences in the States (being an Indian-born U.S. citizen where Indians are extremely prideful about sports and the first major international competition—the CommonWealth Games 2010—are being held in India for the first time ever); it seems to me that Americans (nationally, because Americans abroad are very prideful from my own experiences in India, Spain, Dubai) just don't take as much pride when it comes to such matters, or they do have pride but generally don't like to "show as much."

Again, I want to reiterate that these are just my views, so I am hoping that people will help me understand the reasons for this topic, and even better—prove me wrong.

You may begin.