Introduction-Dear+Reader

Dear Reader,

For my research topic I did the US Olympic and National teams. I love this subject because America can finally unify and root for a central team. US is also very skilled at most competitions and sports. When I started researching this topic, I went in with vague knowledge of how good the US teams (soccer, basketball, hockey) were. One fact that made me even more proud to be apart of the USA was that in 1920, the US hockey team went into the Olympics and played Switzerland and beat them 29-0. Twenty nine goals in one game of hockey is remarkable and is a feat that will set the US apart from any other hockey team out there. They have also beaten arguably the greatest and most dominant hockey team in history in 1980. The Soviet Union. This victory lead to a gold medal win for the US and earned that game the title of "Miracle on Ice". The reason why this victory was such a huge deal was that the Soviets had been the defending gold medal champions for five Olympics straight and had rarely lost. The US team did not have professional players, but college players that had been beat by the Soviets earlier in 1980 by a score of 11-1. The US hockey team was not the only team to raise my pride in the US. Feats the US had accomplished had also earned my respect and caused me to proceed in my research. The US women's soccer team had been named the "Team of the Year" in 1997 and 1999. They are also ranked number 1 in the world by FIFA and had the only two women to be named to the FIFA 100 which was a list of the top 125 players of all-time. Michael Phelps had won eight gold medals of eight total events in the Olympics and is the only person in history to do so. One of the most impressive accomplishments that the US basketball team has accomplished is an overall Olympic record of 122-5. This means that most of the Olympic Games, the US basketball team has won the gold medal.

The reason why I am so passionate about this topic is that I am a competitive person and I love it when my country where I grew up wins the big tournaments and events. I feel as if the days of rivalry and insults against other states teams dissolve away and we can all be unified. Plus the Olympics are the biggest sporting event there is and when the US does good in its events, it makes me proud to be where I'm from.

(The repeated element is the slogan for the 2012 London Olympics "Inspire a Generation". This line is put in the colors of the rings in the Olympic logo.)

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