In Tokyo 2020, Team USA showed us that you can be weak and still win | United States Olympic Team

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Joe Biden held a Zoom call with the US Olympics team on Saturday as the Tokyo Games drew to a close.

“You treat yourself with such grace and decency,” Biden said. “You made me so proud.”

Pretty standard stuff. After all, what would a US president say about an Olympic team? wait. Don’t answer that.

In a country where everyone seems biased about everything, athletes are still being asked to stick to the sport by politicians who don’t stick to politics. But Biden’s praise was not partisan, honest, or appropriate. There was no attempt to propagate sports as ammunition in a satirical culture war, fuel hostility, or equate political leanings with athletic performance.

Most of the men’s track athletes excel at track, Australia and Britain win gold in pool, the usually dominant women’s soccer team has been flawed, the United States has fewer medals than in 2016, topping the rankings by only one gold lead over China . But this was a victorious Olympiad for the United States. Better than Rio, because class and empathy surely shine like medals twinkling around Team USA’s necks.

“These are the things that people around the world look at — more than anything I do as your president, or others do in public life, they get an impression of who we are as Americans,” Biden said.

That picture was blurry in 2016. Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, and Michael Phelps were definitely models to stand out. But headlines criticized swimmer Ryan Lochte as the catchphrase of the “Ugly American” outside after a mess at a gas station. Goalkeeper Hope Solo has angered Brazilians with social media posts that appear to shed light on the Zika virus outbreak.

In the artificial controversy that seemed to echo the aggressive demands of optimistic displays of patriotism that swept the country after 9/11, gymnast Gabe Douglas was criticized for not laying her hands on her heart as the gold-medal-winning gymnast and her four teammates to stand for the national anthem.

In a country that constantly prides itself on its credentials in free speech, its critics have confused patriotism with conformity, a position that is as wrong as it is consistent.

With the Rio Games over, the world was about to notice a quarterback named Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem, and sports activism is quickly dividing fans along political lines. Looking back, it is clear to see that a few months before the presidential election, America was under the dark clouds of a gathering storm that had not yet receded. Tokyo was the games of social distancing and face covering, but Rio was when the mask slipped.

Better memories of Tokyo will remain, and not just the deep images of sporting victory and disaster creep into our vision, race after race, game after game, day after day, with the relentless energy of a waterfall.

Bills cheer for her teammates. Ledecky warmly congratulates Ariarn Titmus after the Australian’s death in the 400m freestyle final. Openly gay basketball star Sue Bird and Cuban-American speed skating and baseball silver medalist Eddie Alvarez were voted by their peers as flag bearers at the opening ceremony, and representatives of a multicultural and diverse nation with pride and passion.

Karate bronze medalist Ariel Torres, born in Cuba, told his story as an immigrant. Raven Saunders “X” who shot him protest, in support of people suffering persecution. Tamira Mensah-Stoke became the first black woman to win Olympic wrestling gold. Caleb Dressel, the fastest swimmer on the planet, a five-time gold medalist in Tokyo, steps into the interview rooms and talks about feeling stressed, about being vulnerable. If it’s tempting to call his exploits superhuman – well, he was here to tell us he’s not, and we wrote him down and believed him.

When you watch a festival of the world’s best athletes, many of whom are smarter at doing what they do than any competitor who has ever lived, oddities are in the entire rankings by definition.

But in Japan, amid the bromides of IOC President Thomas Bach, and in a calm public atmosphere and strict protocols—a damned context of inflexibility and anxiety that sucked some joy out of the all-stressful party—American athletes made valuable contributions to add nuance. He drew attention to discussions on mental health, civil rights, tolerance and diversity.

American Olympians, traditionally honored on cereal boxes, are no longer content with being seen as pieces of cardboard. Biden is right: They were fit. They also won many medals.

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