I’ve always enjoyed watching the Olympics on TV, and even though I favor the Winter Games, I keep up with the summer competitions in gymnastics, swimming and running. As a kid, I chewed my fingernails off watching Mark Spitz splash his way to seven gold medals, and over the years I’ve cheered on elite-level gymnasts like Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, Josef Stalder, and Kurt Thomas. Like most American viewers, my heart lay with the U.S. athletes. A primal patriotic urge rose in me during Olympic seasons. Despite my long-held belief that we’re all citizens of the same earth, not individual nation states, I’d find myself not only rooting for the U.S.…