Olympic Woes for the US

There's an interesting graphic online at Washington Post that shows how the Winter Olympics tends to be a race for medals by rich nations. Certainly, it's the colder nations that show up, but with the cold comes expense for some, if not all, of the sports. You can't just run and be a good cross-country skier. Rather, you have to train, have facilities, compete. With, let's say, marathon, Ethiopians can run on the street to train (which they do). Which goes to say, what's with the US? The likes of Canada, Norway, Netherlands, and Germany, are making hay. They're turning in gold medals despite their relative smaller population. It's an Olympics that will force the US Olympic committee to re-evaluate what's happening with the program. Or perhaps athletes only have a certain level of excellence to achieve, and the rest of the world is catching up.