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I freely confess that I am no expert on gymnastics, either men’s or women’s.  But I do know one thing: if you don’t stick the landing, the performance is much less impressive, whatever else came before.  So it is frustrating for me to see so many gymnasts fail to land squarely on two feet, and, somehow do better than the few gymnasts who can stay still.  I hear that gymnastic routines are more technically difficult than ever before, and I don’t know enough to deny that.  To the contrary, I watched an athlete on the still rings a few days ago who powered his body above his head in such a way as to not only defy all laws of physics, but according to the television announcer, to be the first gymnast capable of said maneuver.  It was impressive.

But, while all these routines are becoming more challenging, the gymnasts simply cannot land without taking a big step, hop, or falling down entirely, even when it seems like that would be the least complicated aspect of their sport.  And it is troubling to see an athlete who does stick the landing score lower than one who doesn’t, marked down instead for not attempting some element that is supposedly more difficult, but which my eyes are too inexperienced to distinguish.

Meanwhile, the obviously underage Chinese gymnasts and the ridiculous new method of score tabulation has sullied, to me, what is an otherwise fantastic Olympic sport.  My proposals: let’s see some birth certificates; and let’s go back to a system in which a “10.0″ is perfect.  Everybody understands that.

I’ve been catching as much Olympic coverage as I can while here in South Carolina (right now, for instance, I am watching men’s swimming in the hotel lobby), and am a little confused by the way these games are televised by NBC.  There is a relentless focus on swimming, to the point that they will show every qualifying race, while entire sports get no primetime coverage at all.  Then, what does get prime television time, is shown only in the context of what would almost seem to be a predetermined script.  Last night, for example, the men’s gymnastics team event was on, and, of course, NBC concentrated on the Americans.  But, even when France was in first place, we weren’t shown any of the French gymnasts’ routines.  Instead, NBC focused exclusively on the USA vs. China story.  Maybe it’s true that that was the biggest rivalry, but it doesn’t reflect the spirit of the Olympic games, to me, to have such a limited scope.

Meanwhile, I have no idea what I have been missing on the other NBC-owned networks, since the hotel doesn’t receive any HD channels.  For all I know I have missed many of my favorite events.

NBC advertised some 3,500 hours of Olympic coverage across several networks, but judging by what I’ve seen so far, 3,400 of those hours must be dedicated to soccer.  This morning, both USA-HD and Universal-HD are showing soccer; and MSNBC is simply simulcasting Universal-HD.  NBC is showing a cartoon.  I appreciate that soccer is popular, but it’s also on TV all the time.  I know there are dozens of other Olympic events taking place at any given time, events that are seldom, if ever, seen on television outside the context of the Olympics.  I wish they’d show them instead of Italy vs. Korea soccer.

In prime time last night I did get to see men’s gymnastics, which I love, women’s beach volleyball, which I also love, and swimming.  If I had a complaint about the swimming, it’s that the media is so in love with Michael Phelps that they spend lavish amounts of air time talking about every aspect of his life, that we miss other interesting things.

I’ve got to hand it to the Chinese: they do things big.  I had figured that the opening ceremonies of the Olympics today would be spectacular, and though I haven’t seen the television coverage yet, the photographs already released are almost beyond belief.  Frankly, they make all other Olympic host cities look like amateurs.  Look at this photo and tell me they haven’t channeled Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or this one and tell me anybody else could do that.  No way.

I have been so eager for these Olympic games, and I intend to watch a lot–and I mean a lot–of TV coverage.

UPDATE: Last night I did watch the prime time replay of the opening ceremony, and it defied belief.  The moving boxes and thousands of drummers were incredible.  The entire production was simultaneously spectacular and intimidating.  These people will one day be our masters.

Because this revelation would have sunk his candidacy.  What a shame.

UPDATE: I don’t really want to know any details about this affair, but besides being a terrible thing to do to an ailing wife, it also is a huge waste.  I have said in the past that John Edwards would one day be president.  I figured he’d have serve a couple terms as governor of North Carolina then make another presidential run down the road.  But none of that seems possible now.  I may be speaking prematurely, since lots of politicians get past indiscretions.  But, still, what a pity.