United States national team

Team USA or United States national team may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions.

Olympic teams

Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as the FIBA Basketball World Cup and World Championship for Women, the Ice Hockey World Championships, the FIFA World Cup, or the World Figure Skating Championships. The list includes sports that have Olympic competitions, even if the United States team has never participated (marked with an asterisk *).

United States

Coordinates: 40°N 100°W / 40°N 100°W / 40; -100

The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major territories and various possessions. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At 3.8 million square miles (9.842 million km²) and with over 320 million people, the country is the world's third or fourth-largest by total area and the third most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The geography and climate of the United States are also extremely diverse, and the country is home to a wide variety of wildlife.

Team

A team is a group of people or other animals linked in a common purpose. Human teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.

A group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Naresh Jain (2009) claims:

Team members need to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond his or her limitations. Teams can be broken down into from a huge team or one big group of people, even if these smaller secondary teams are temporary.

A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.

Thus teams of game players can form (and re-form) to practise their craft/sport. Transport logistics executives can select teams of horses, dogs, or oxen for the purpose of conveying passengers or goods.

Oracle Team USA

Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America’s Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club. The team also won the 34th America's Cup in 2013.

The syndicate was initially named Oracle for the 2003 campaign and backed primarily by Larry Ellison, the wealthy co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, but was renamed in August 2004 to Oracle BMW Racing to reflect the German company's role, and subsequently revised again to BMW Oracle Racing to reflect increased involvement from BMW. At the end of December 2010 it was announced that by mutual agreement of both partners, BMW was bringing to a close its longstanding partnership with ORACLE Racing and thereby ending its involvement in the America's Cup. Subsequently, the syndicate was renamed to Oracle Team USA to compete for the 2013 34th America's Cup.

History

31st America's Cup (2003)

Roller derby

Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. Game play consists of a series of short match ups (jams) in which both teams designate a jammer who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams attempt to hinder the opposing jammer while assisting their own jammer—in effect, playing both offense and defense simultaneously. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, nearly half of them outside the United States.

While the sport has its origins in the banked-track roller skating marathons of the 1930s, Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon are credited with the basic evolution of the sport to its initial competitive form. Professional roller derby quickly became popular; in 1940, more than five million spectators watched in about 50 American cities. In the ensuing decades, however, it predominantly became a form of sports entertainment where the theatrical elements overshadowed the athleticism. This gratuitous showmanship largely ended with the sport's contemporary grassroots revival in the first decade of the 21st century. Although some sports entertainment qualities such as player pseudonyms and colorful uniforms were retained, scripted bouts with predetermined winners were abandoned.