"Amateur"ish U.S. reaction to Chinese Medal Grab

There is an interesting article in the FT today- "US Olympic team eyes state help as China challenges sporting order." It reads as follows: "As the US Olympic team contemplates the abrupt loss of its longstanding dominance of the medals table to its Chinese hosts, American officials are looking at asking the federal government for money to make sure it never happens again.
In what has the potential to become a sporting version of the cold war, China has poured millions into its state sports system to produce medal winners at the Beijing Games, and the US is positioning itself to retaliate.
The US team, which gets no money from Washington, relies on only $150m a year from sponsors, fundraising and a share of revenues from the International Olympic Committee.As a result, China has opened up such a comfortable lead over the US in the race for gold medals that it is poised to top the tally of overall medals for the first time, a position the US has held for 16 of the 23 Games in which it has competed......"

During the second half of the previous century, private funds supported U.S. Amateur athletes while the state governments of the communist countries (Soviet Union, East Germany, etc.) supported their athletes. In the 1980s and 1990s, the "professional" athletes took over the Olympics, stripping it of any semblance of "fair and equitable" competition. When the U.S. sponsorships and private fund-raising raise $150 million to support the athletes, how are the "less fortunate" countries in Africa, Asia or Central/South America expected to compete?

What is really disturbing is that according to the article, "As the US Olympic team contemplates the abrupt loss of its longstanding dominance of the medals table to its Chinese hosts, American officials are looking at asking the federal government for money to make sure it never happens again." One can understand a team asking the government for money, but why can't the U.S. people accept other countries winning? Why can't the people realize that if other countries' athletes win, then they can raise the bar for everyone, and they can inspire whole nations? It is the notion of "we should win everything and everyone else SHOULD lose" attitude that shows a lack of thought and a deficiency of human spirit and human sharing- selfishness in its most gross exhibition.