More from the Beijing Olympics.
If you saw the finals of the Men’s 4×100 freestyle relay (swimming) this morning, then you witnessed something historic. Jason Lezak anchored the United States team; catching French swimmer Alain Bernard, world recorder holder in the 100 meters, erasing a half-a-body-length lead to touch in eight-hundredths of a second before the Frenchman, winning gold for the United States. In my friend’s living room, here in Beijing, I was leaping about the place, shouting at the walls and frightening the neighbors. It’s the most pumped up I’ve felt in years.
Jason swam his 100 meters in 46.06 seconds, which according some sources is over a half-second faster than any other human has ever done, and this is for 100 meters, a sprint. It’s the sort of achievement I believe is borne from a moment. With his country on his mind, he did something completely unreasonable, swimming considerably faster than anyone before. Jason is 32 years old.
“Country” is the largest group most of us will ever feel part of. “I’m a citizen of the world,” you might say, but you still grew up in a place that profoundly shaped how you live and think. Country is culture; if you don’t think you have a culture, then you’ve probably never spent much time outside your own country.
When I watched the U.S. vs. China basketball game last night, I wondered what was going through the minds of our NBA players. Playing in a stadium mostly filled with non-Americans, were they realizing something different from their normal game state of mind? Did they feel what I felt? That they were representing me and 280 million other Americans?
Our world is in a state of transition. There are lots of vibrant, optimistic countries in the world. China is certainly one of them The single-super-power era has been a short one, and I think that’s good. Consider the benefits of competition between athletes, political parties, companies, and how much we’ve all gained from other cultures; things like burritos, democracy, and yoga. But the lines between countries are much less thick than before. In my profession – technology – our geographic location is often irrelevant as large swaths of the world come online and grow prosperous. I hope for a day where country is a choice, where we all would choose our country were we given such a choice.
Go U.S.A.