I don't know if my memory is faulty and I'm becoming one of those bitter "it was better back in my day" kind of people, or if my little gripes against NBC actually have any merit, but here are my ideas on what NBC gets wrong with Olympic coverage and what they could do to improve it.
There are so many interesting events that take place at the games that get absolutely no air time, while we are subjected to hours of figure skating and curling. I seem to remember some of the years ABC had the Olympics and they would spend less time on one event and show more different events during a particular time slot. I like to see things I can't normally see during other times of the year, but it seems that the prime time coverage doesn't feature too many of those events. How about a bit more variety. Instead of showing the entire curling match, how about cutting away to some other things and coming back to it. It's all on tape delay, so it shouldn't be that hard to piece things together.
Don't waste my time with non competition fluff. I want to see athletes competing against one another, not five minutes of studio people talking about it followed by a ten minute feature about little Susie figure skater's childhood back in Ukraine. That's fifteen minutes you could have shown some ski jumping or bob sledding, or some other event that gets ignored because there aren't any Americans in medal contention.
I don't know if I'm the only person with the same complaints, but every two years I look forward to the Olympics only to be disappointed by NBC's coverage. I seem to remember ABC showing a wider variety of events during the hours that I'm actually home and awake, while NBC seems to focus on a select few events and give us more time on little background stories and studio analysis. How long does NBC's contract last? Is there any chance of a different network getting the Olympics in the near future?