on for four more years because the Olympics will be in their home country. Ledecky has already made it known she plans to be in LA. Maybe she’d keep competing four more years anyway, but I’m sure it doesn’t hurt the Olympics will be in the US.

2. Home field advantage is real as someone else said. It works in college basketball. It works in the Olympics.

I’m a slow distance runner. The first time I ran a marathon, I was amazed at the boost I got from random people I didn’t know shouting out encouragement from the side of the road.

My teen son is training for a marathon right now. The trail system by our house is used by the high school cross country team to train. He came back from a run and reported his pace that day was a full minute per mile faster than he had ever run on a longer training run. The reason: the older high schoolers were telling him how good he looked as they crossed paths.

3. Related to #3, refs and judges have a human tendency to at least slightly favor the home team.

4. Also related to 2, lack of travel and familiarity with the culture and surroundings helps.

5. Related to #1, people who may have given up without ever making it to an Olympics decide to keep trying when it’s in their home country. And some try even harder in training.