You are reading way too much into this. This is all a matter of circumstance and coincidence than any sort of effort to have history play out like this. When you say "the USA wanting to go back to hosting".. no, the USA has always wanted to host these events. They put in a bid for literally every Summer Olympics between 1944 and 1984. Took a break after that and bid for 1996, which of course they won. Took another break and bid for 2012. There has always been a "want," but the IOC doesn't always want to come here. Don't just look at the times the United States has hosted these events as the only times they have *wanted* to host these events. When I used the word "attraction," it's not about the United States and various cities being interested so much as the country's ability to actually bring those events here. And obviously that's going to be based on recent history where if they have hosted an Olympics or a World Cup in recent memory, they shouldn't expect to see another one for a while.
In that regard, 1996 is a big exception, but look at what has been discussed here as the "what if Atlanta doesn't get 1996" alternate history. Maybe Salt Lake gets the `98 Olympics then. Maybe New York is properly timed to get either 2008 or 2012. Now all of a sudden these events are all much more spaced out. Either way, especially when looking at the Olympics and the World Cup, 1 has absolutely nothing to do with the other. The Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics are certainly tied together.
In short.. how history has played out (and will play out) has absolutely nothing to do with American culture or global image or anything like that. All a matter of timing and it just happened to work out that 2026 and 2028 will see a World Cup and an Olympics here, with another Olympics probably not too far behind.