Olympic coverage

I think we've lost something as a society. NBC's coverage of the Olympics has made me pause and rethink this whole disastrous coverage.
Are we really a "show me the money" kind of people? Do we really just want the "money shot"? I have to think so because that is what NBC is giving us, except on the weekends when apparently 12 hours live of the worm crawling event is the going thing.

What makes the Olympics so great is that yes, even the ping pong event has the best athlete's in the world - please, I'm sorry I can't even blog that without balking. What's amazing about it is that here you have the best of the best, fighting to win. No one competes on this level because they want to lose or because they are there accidentally. I'm sorry, but no one stumbles onto the Men's rings or into the ladies balance beam competition. Yes, they are talented and want to win. They have years of training (Does anyone really train for ping pong? Oh, sorry table tennis. Nope ping pong.). What's especially captivating about gymnastics is these guys are good for one maybe 2 Olympics because that sport is just brutal. Brutal. Honestly, Phelps could participate in 2-3 more Olympics, if he wanted.

Nevertheless, I want to cheer my country. I don't care if John Orozco finishes 50th (he finished 8th). I want to see him perform or hear it. When my countrymen do well I applaud. When they struggle, I still want to applaud because out of all the billions of people on the planet these people do something they are gifted at and whether they medal or not, that's not the important part. I want them to medal - who doesn't want their country to finish first? The really important part is that they let us come together as a nation in support, in union and thanksgiving that we have such talented and gifted people in our nation and share in their victory, defeat or train wreck as they implode under the pressure.

We would do well to learn from another any other nation struggling to even medal. There you see the difference between them and us. The entire country (practically) knows their athletes, and is aware of the competition, and watch (if they are even able) with expectant admiration. We've become so flipping arrogant and focused on the money shot that everything else comes secondary to it and that is the crux of what irks me about NBC's coverage. It's not NBC. It's our country. It's not the best part of my country but it is part of who we are.That's kind of sad.