Power and Glory

Today’s subject: anti-Americanism. Why are we so disliked by so many people?

Many Americans have asked that question in regard to much of the Muslim world since Sept. 11, since we saw the chilling video of Palestinians figuratively dancing on the graves of those killed in terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The first time I asked that question was 19 years ago at the opening ceremony of the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela. When the U.S. team marched into the stadium during the parade of nations, a large number of Venezuelan young people around me chanted, “Cuba, si! Yanqui, no.”

I asked some of them why they were hostile toward the United States and didn’t get satisfactory answers. But all I had to do was observe.

The U.S. team marching in the opening ceremony was by far the largest, even larger than the host Venezuelans’ team. Although all of those U.S. athletes had earned places in the Games, I’m sure to people from other countries it seemed as if we were flaunting our athletic superiority in the region.

Our athletes made the situation worse in subsequent days with constant complaints about conditions in the athletes’ village, which, in a nation devastated by depressed oil prices, didn’t quite get finished.

The U.S. Olympic Committee responded by acquiring hotel rooms for our athletes on the nights before they were to compete, a luxury that wasn’t available to athletes from most countries. They responded by calling our athletes “Ugly Americans.”

It would not be the last time I heard that expression during an international sporting event designed to harbor goodwill among nations.

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Anti-American sentiment within the sporting world is exacerbated during Olympic Games in the United States.

That is not because we are patriotic. Most people, no matter which country they are from, are patriotic. It’s not even because we are so boisterously patriotic. I’ve never heard louder chants than the “Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie, oy, oy, oy,” from Australians when their athletes were competing during the Sydney Games.

It’s because we so often allow our patriotism to blind us to the achievements of athletes from other countries. When a U.S. athlete is out of contention, the cheering stops.

The worldwide impression of Americans is that we don’t care who wins if it’s not an American, an impression confirmed by the U.S. TV networks’ emphasis on U.S. athletes to the exclusion of virtually everyone else.

That was the major complaint of foreign athletes about the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, which, with the Soviet Bloc athletes boycotting, became an orgy of jingoism as Americans won far more than their fair share of medals.

Then came the news that we also made a ton of money on the Games.

Part of the surplus stayed in Los Angeles with the Amateur Athletic Foundation. The rest went to the U.S. Olympic Committee, which, as part of a solidarity program, shared it with other nations.

But to say that not all USOC board members were fond of the program is an understatement.

I recall one particular proposal to send $20,000 to Japan.

George Steinbrenner bolted from his seat as though he had sat on a tack.

“Twenty thousand dollars to the damn Japs,” he exclaimed.

Soon thereafter, the USOC elected Steinbrenner as a vice president.

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That brings us to Salt Lake City, where the Winter Olympics begin today. There was a concern among foreign media before Sept. 11 that this would be a festival of Americanism. Now, since Sept. 11, visitors seem more than willing to cut us a little slack.

That includes the International Olympic Committee. No matter what you might think of IOC President Jacques Rogge and his band of rogues, they, in conjunction with the USOC and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, arrived at the best solution for the inclusion of the World Trade Center flag in tonight’s opening ceremony.

The IOC’s coordination commission was correct to reject a USOC proposal to have U.S. athletes carry the flag into Rice-Eccles Stadium behind the U.S. delegation as part of the parade of nations.

Not only was that a violation of protocol, the proposal suggested that Sept. 11 was solely an American tragedy. Reasonable people from the IOC, USOC and SLOC met late Wednesday night and arrived at a solution enabling the entire world to feel a part of the moment.

They had to divert from tradition, creating a grand entrance for the flag that will represent the host country during the national anthem. But extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

Eight U.S. athletes and two policemen from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will serve as the honor guard carrying the flag into the stadium before the parade of nations. The plan was for it to be raised onto a flagpole to fly during the national anthem, but it was determined Thursday that the flag was too frail.

“There are 77 countries here, and 80 countries lost people in the World Trade Center,” said Sandra Baldwin, USOC president.

Consistent with that sentiment, SLOC President Mitt Romney proposed that athletes from other countries serve as part of the honor guard, but the IOC said that an American flag should be carried by American athletes.

Still, U.S. skeleton athlete Jim Shea Jr., who will deliver the athletes’ oath, said Thursday, “That flag belongs to the entire world.”

So does Sept. 11.

Mark Grimmette, an American luge slider chosen to help carry the flag tonight, said that he and his teammates placed a sticker on their sled for the first World Cup event after the attacks.

It said, “Remember the Innocent Victims of Sept. 11.”

“A couple of athletes from other countries approached us at the next event and asked if we had some spare stickers for their sleds,” Grimmette said. “By the time we came here, almost every sled had a sticker.”

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Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com.