That’s still kind of a reach for most of the athletes from obscure countries. Many of them live in developed countries and only represent another country because they’re able to claim a grandmother’s 3rd cousin as a citizen of the obscure nation.
I will be rooting for Michelle Jenneke. Well, at least cheering for her warm up routine.
I root for Australian Swimming.
Really, I’ll root for just about anyone. I love greatness. During the winter Olympics, I always hope the Dutch crush the speedskating world records. There are four or five downhill skiers I root for and none of them are Canadian.
I love Canada and I’m happy when they do well, but as I said, I root for individual greatness during the olympics and I don’t care where it comes from.
Yes. But I have no more personnal connection with a French athlete than I have with an American or Zambian one. So, which of them wins doesn’t affect me in any way. The highest level of competition where I could cheer for one side would be my village against the next village (I was brought up in a rural area). But even then, that would be people I personnally know (I would know both sides, in fact, but still would support loudly “mine”, if only because it’s fun : I guess that’s the level where my tribalism stops).
The individual achievement of some stranger isn’t something I can feel any pride about. Someone is very very very good at, say, playing tennis and marginally better than a dozen of others very very good players. Why would I feel involved and particularly happy about his victory? In fact, when I think of it, I often feel sad for the people who lost when I watch a competition. 
You implied that I was only pretending not to care in order to appear politically correct.
I don’t get into this rah rah USA crap. I want to see close races and close contests. I’ll root against countries I don’t like, for countries I do, and for the hottest women athletes. I want upsets, judging controversies, great performances, and epic fails. Like that guy who symbolized the agony of defeat on Wide World of Sports- that kind of fail. What I don’t want to see are the endless up close and personal stories- skip the schmaltz and cut to the competition.
Indeed. I rooted for Tahmina Kohistani in 2012 as the lone female athlete from Afghanistan; although she came in last, just getting to the Olympics and competing in the face of violent resistance was a major triumph. (For comparison, Mehboba Ahdyar had planned to compete in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing but went into hiding during training due to death threats, eventually fleeing to Norway.)
Also, that tiny North Korean weightlifter guy was fascinating to watch. A credit to his sport.
Same here. I would have loved to see Iceland and Wales go through.
That’s where your tribalism stops. Why there? You wouldn’t feel more affinity for someone from the nearest town than from someone from New Zealand?
Not to speak for anyone, but village-level is a fairly natural place to draw a line of affinity. You can actually know everyone in a village. You cannot know everyone in a city, or a province of multiple towns.
Speaking only for myself, when they didn’t, I lost interest in the rest of the tournament.
I don’t have any cite for this, so you’ll have to take it with a pinch of salt, but I do remember reading that the optimum number for a tribe at the lowest level was around about 20-22. Which fits quite nicely with a tournament soccer squad…