Ok, so its really not that big of a deal, but if you turn on your sports news, you’ll find out that Robby Ginepri is now the first American to break into the sweet sixteen at the French Open since 2003. Pretty cool, but it kind of raises some questions in my mind as to why the U.S. doesn’t do well in certain sports.
Sure, we dominate sports only we really play (*cough football *cough*), but when it comes to things like soccer and tennis, we only seem to have sporadic success, despite having a huge base of players to draw off of. Millions of children are playing soccer in the U.S., so how come none of these grow up to be the star players we need to dominate in the international circuit? I suspect that the status of the sport has a lot to do with it. Being a football player at a big ten school will give you god like status on campus, whereas being a star soccer player won’t kill your social status at all, but it certainly won’t be the same as even the most marginal football player.
I’m not proposing we make any radical changes the the system to fix this discrepancy, as I’m far more concerned about the difference in attitudes between scientists and athletes. Scientists and engineers help keep the world running smoothly, and have created modern society as we know it. Athletes throw a ball around. The difference in status between these two professions is huge, to say the least. This isn’t rational, and isn’t likely to change any time soon. I just needed to throw that rant in there. 
Getting back to Robby Ginepri, I do wish him luck in the rest of the French Open. If he wins, it will be a joy to watch in the same way that Lance’s win in the Tour de France were. Put those snobby Frenchmen in their place!
