America’s 2024 Paris Olympic team showcased what is best about the U.S. This year’s summer Olympics made history with gender parity on the field of play for the first time ever. Team USA brought together 314 women and 278 men totaling 592 athletes. According to the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University, 22 (3.7%) of Team USA’s athletes are immigrants from Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, England, Eritrea, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Kenya, Serbia, Somalia and South Korea. Some have dual citizenship; others are naturalized citizens. One joined the US Army on his path to citizenship; another claimed asylum and obtained citizenship years later. Forty-two (7%) of Team USA’s athletes are children of immigrants or second-generation immigrants. Three athletes are native Hawaiians.
Uniting around the theme One for All, they arrived on one boat, standing shoulder to shoulder from across the country and around the world. They brought their personal best to each of the 55 sports they competed in. They came with their own stories and struggles, their discipline and their dreams, the grit needed to endure years of grueling training, their wins and their losses.
Their passion and determination inspired admiration for the human drive to dream big and reach for our goals. Not everyone could win gold, but everyone exhibited the gold standard of behavior in sports when faced with a loss by congratulating opponents and celebrating the victories of their teammates.
They made us all proud. Not only did they top the medal count, winning 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze medals, bringing the total to 126, but they showcased America’s powerful distinction. Before all the world, our multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural diversity exhibited America’s unique, competitive advantage.
Turning our attention to the next big competition here at home, the 2024 election, there are some important contrasts. Our athletes played by the rules, respected their competitors, conceded to losses, and celebrated hard-won victories — whether their own or those of their teammates or opponents. We used to have similar rules of engagement in our political arena until Donald Trump broke them. He disrespects his opponents, ridicules their backgrounds, and resorts to middle school name-calling. He still can’t concede his 2020 loss, even after every court case he brought was rejected. and he stands alone as the only president in history who was such a sore loser, he refused to attend President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The Republican party is wedded to the idea that America’s diversity will break us. In fact, just the opposite is true. Our diversity is our super power. As Team USA showed, when mobilized toward common goals, there is none who can stop us. But our divide and conquer history, resurrected by Trump and his MAGA followers, has sadly exhibited that our diversity is often used against us to halt progress for the many in order to benefit the few.
Teambuilding across differences is hard work but the rewards are compounded when done with integrity, empathy, and a willingness to listen and learn from each other. Coaches and leaders know this. and the record-breaking crowds and fundraising efforts supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz on the Democratic ticket is one indication that the American people know a leadership team who can bring us together instead of tearing us apart when they see one.
Harris and Walz have shown they are committed to building a national coalition that looks like Team USA, where everyone is included, people’s talents are supported, and their rights and freedoms are protected. They are the right leadership team at the right time as we create America’s multicultural future.
Candace Waldron, MDiv., is former executive director of HAWC, Healing Abuse Working for Change in Salem, and the author of “My Daughter He: Transitioning With Our Transgender Children.” She blogs at www.candacewaldron.com and lives in Rockport.