Foreign athletic feats unrecognized

In the United States, we value dominance in sports. It's the reason Michael Phelps caught our attention during his golden performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Lance Armstrong captured our hearts while winning seven straight Tour de France titles and Tony Hawk kept us intrigued when he did things on a skateboard no one ever thought possible.

Unfortunately, in the United States we value something else in sports: being American.

While breathtaking feats by foreign athletes will inevitably leak into our peripheral vision, they almost always fail to garner the same amount of attention as our so-called hometown heroes. Sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica is the world record-holder in the 100-and 200-meter dash. Casual sports fans know his name—probably. Is that really enough? American track and field stars like Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Michael Johnson are forever engrained in United States media lore. Joyner-Kersee was voted Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated for Women and late 1990s Nike commercials dubbed Johnson The World's Fastest Man—even though another sprinter, Donovan Bailey of Canada, then held the record for the 100-meter dash, which is generally the determinant for said title.

But perhaps a more curious case surrounds Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis player who had one of the best seasons ever in 2011. Men's tennis in general has suffered a decline in popularity during the past decade, following an era defined by a rivalry of two American tennis stars, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Since the turn of the millennium, the sport has primarily been dominated by Swiss ace Roger Federer. Spaniard Rafael Nadal has more recently come onto the scene, but due to his one-sided history with Federer (Nadal leads the career matchup 18-9) and the age difference between them (Federer is five years older), the rivalry never reached its epic potential.

Last year, however, belonged solely to Djokovic, who tore through a traditionally wearing year-long schedule and blew by both Federer and Nadal in the process. Djokovic began 2011 with a 43-match winning streak, one short of tying John McEnroe's all-time record. He won 10 tournaments in all and captured three of four major championships: the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He finished the year with a 70-6 overall record and, unsurprisingly, he usurped the No. 1 overall ranking from Nadal, whom he overtook in six finals matches.

In no way did all of this go unnoticed; mainstream American media pays attention to the major championships at least, and Djokovic was the main storyline through most of those. But the ratio of athletic significance to recognition received was considerably imbalanced—Djokovic unabashedly dominated a sport (an individual sport, no less) throughout an entire year. Sampras and fellow legend Boris Becker acknowledged it as one of the greatest seasons ever by a male tennis player. Though this is admittedly subjective, not enough people paid attention to this. Following half a month of superfluous Super Bowl preparation, in which two teams were hailed for the gritty attitude, unquestionable heart and, yes, dominant play they demonstrated over the previous five months, it is difficult to imagine how so much less recognition is due towards one man who displayed the same characteristics over twice as long a period of time.

It should also be noted that Djokovic, as compared to his peers, is one of the more entertaining figures tennis has to offer. He is far more charismatic than Federer and Nadal (then again, so is a wooden plank) and certainly more likeable than temperamental American "star" Andy Roddick. Djokovic's impressions are legendary, and he makes sure to include in his act tennis greats of every generation and gender, from Nadal to McEnroe to Maria Sharapova. Djokovic's insufficient recognition, therefore, cannot be attributed to his personality.

So we return to the issue of nationality. There's no question about it—Djokovic is a hero in his native Serbia. In 2009 and 2010, he was voted the country's most popular athlete and, in 2011, he was awarded the Order of St. Sava I class, the highest decoration of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Some might argue that acknowledgement in his home country probably matters more to Djokovic than attention in America—and they'd probably be right. But in a sports media environment as saturated as that of the United States, there is room to sufficiently recognize the best of the best in every sport that maintains a general national following.

On that note, others might argue that the problem isn't Djokovic, but the sport he plays. Tennis, and most individual sports for that matter, is generally less popular than the "Big Four"—football, baseball, basketball and (supposedly) hockey. But I'd be willing to bet a large chunk of change that if an American tennis player had the year Djokovic had, we'd never hear the end of it. In fact, we might even be clamoring for more Super Bowl coverage.