But there was a better story right in front of them. A more heartwarming story. Vancouver-area native Maelle Ricker had been in that same final four years ago. And unlike Jacobellis, Ricker didn’t walk away from the hill with egg on her face. Maelle was airlifted off the hill after a scary crash the product of trying too hard to win.

When I finally heard that story last night (belatedly told in midcompetition by NBC talking heads looking for some redemptive quality for the final once their golden girl choice had failed again), I had no trouble cheering for the Canadian snowboarder to take the gold she won with an aggressive but controlled ride.

While Jacobellis post competition was trying to sell herself as having learned a lesson because at least she didn’t just quit in the consolation heat like she normally would (why, how noble of you angelic one!), Ricker was celebrating a home field hard fought victory.

Maybe by the time Jacobellis finds her way to the other side of 30 she’ll have figured out what it means not to take the competition for granted.

China won 51 events, yes. But there were only 74 gold medals awarded to Chinese athletes and only 185 total medals awarded to Chinese athletes.

By this measure the United States, which won only 36 events, actually won the gold medal race and completely overpowered in the total medal race. American athletes are bringing home 124 gold medals and 314 total medals.

How can that be, you may ask? China has 49 gold and the United States has 33. Au contraire! Look at the Chinese and U.S. medal winners. Note that 72 Chinese individuals are wearing gold medals around this week, while 87 Americans are. By the end of the weekend, if a few more U.S. teams come through with gold, it won’t be even that close.

Of course, there are those who want to parse medals by population and GDP. They’re from smaller or less wealthy countries who have their own ax to grind. The United States doesn’t come out too badly per capita, but using both population and GDP, it looks pretty bad compared with Zimbabwe!

I like to think that China’s concentration on sports in which there are more medals for individuals to win has backfired. Team sports, at which the United States is excelling in this Olympics, are the key to winning the SportsDiva Medal Count. So, for those of you who weren’t feeling dominant enough this morning, relax and root on the volleyball, basketball, and water polo teams. Building world domination one team sport at a time.

I’ll get back to you with the overall total tomorrow.

What you missed last night, because NBC only cares about U.S. medalists and last night they cared only about LoLo Jones losing, even though an American, Dawn Harper, won the 100 meter hurdles, was this, the . We did, rather belatedly, see just a tiny bit of the of both silver-medalist Sally McLellan and bronze-medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. And we saw Harper’s face during the anthem. But with all three young women clearly delighted with the result, the opportunity to show that winning any medal IS winning was lost on NBC.

I love the Olympics. I love the athletes who win unexpectedly, like U.S. discus thrower or the beside-himself .

I love the ones who expect to win, and still, eight golds into the games have trouble not crying during the the medal ceremony, like Michael Phelps. This guy may have been NBC’s biggest marketing tool, but he doesn’t act like a tool. There was never a moment, even with all the time constraints of his chosen path and all the work and pressure and logistics, when he seemed at all full of himself, or above it all, or too cool for school. As a kid who self-admittedly grew up with a Kick Me sign on his back–he was a dork (had ADHD, had to work really hard in school, was really bad at team sports) and his mom was a principal–he seems to fit quite comfortably in his britches. I’ve heard criticism of how cute he’s not. But really, put the hair back on and he’s plenty cute. Besides, although I appreciate a pretty face (see below) I’m quite aware these are not beauty contests. And the man’s arms are long enough to embrace the world.

I hate the ones who don’t win gold and can’t graciously smile at winning bronze or silver. By the time you get to the medals ceremony, you should be mature enough to realize what you’ve accomplished and a good enough sport to understand there are dozens of other athletes in your event who are not on the podium at all (Dara Torres–I’m looking at you and two of your teammates on the first relay silver–RUDE!).

I do love the hotties (sorry, I’m only human), like on the right of that medley group.

And I love the weight lifters like , a Latvian legislator(!) who won a bronze.

I love equestrian events (although NBC has been calling them “horse” events as though anyone watching them doesn’t, by now, know what equestrian means). And if you haven’t been watching on Oxygen, you probably don’t know that the U.S. won gold in Team Jumping and American Gina Miles won silver in Eventing in spite of the U.S. team doing very poorly.

Sometimes, the Olympics make me think of silly things, like wondering, when Rebecca Soni won her unexpected gold, if the women swimmers are annoyed that at their moment of greatest glory they’re having their pictures taken . (Couldn’t they have a few minutes to blow dry?)

But most of all I just love the competition and the unpredictability. The pomp and ceremony. The tradition and the big and little sparks of pure joy that come from things like a completely unexpected bronze medal for a U.S. runner who’s mom was an Olympian. If you missed seeing Shalane Flanagan win that bronze in the 10,000 meters with her mom going completely crazy, exhorting her and finally celebrating for her, you missed the best vignette of the games. Find it on video and soak in the meaning of Olympic success.

I love the swimming. I love tall men with arms long enough to hug the world clad in lycra, or sometimes barely clad in lycra. Do you suppose they half strip those suits off just so we can see exactly how shaved down they are?

And NBC is doing a pretty good job, whether the commentators are at the venue or in New York, they mostly seem awake on all counts and provide the kind of information you need, whether neophyte or afficionado.

I’m particularly happy with Andrea Kremer as the poolside interviewer. First of all, and probably most importantly, she’s a really really good interviewer. She asks good questions, listens to the answers (when the director is yelling in her ear, that has to be hard), and handles the task with appropriate composed excitement.

But there’s one rotten spot in my Olympic apple. Her name is Cynthia Potter. NBC decided to continue to employ as a diving commentator a woman with a dramatic command of the obvious who at the same time has a tenuous command of her facts and, worst of all, has the most annoying, loudest, unmodulated fingernails on a blackboard voice in the history of sports broadcasting. I’d take Dick Vitale over this woman in a heartbeat. And I HATE Dick Vitale.

The voice is horrible. The timbre high, the quality nasal, and she says nearly everything at the same unmodulated yell, except when she decides to accent a word in a sentence completely AT random. “But Diva,” you say, “shes a former diver. What besides her voice bothers you?” Here are just a few examples from Tuesday night’s women’s synchronized diving broadcast.

In discussing U.S. team Dunnichay and Ishimatsu, she brought up the fact that Ishimatsu’s whole family had moved to Indianapolis (site of the U.S. Olympic Training Center) so that the divers could train together and then said (I’m not making this up), that it’s really important for synchronized divers to live in the same place so they can train together. Ya think?

“Ok, Diva,” you say, “That’s just a slip. In hours of competition, she’s bound to slip up once or twice.” Fine. Let’s stick just to the commentary on the diving, in which she is supposed to be an expert.

On their first dive, the U.S. pair scored right around 50 and Potter’s professional announcer nonexpert sidekick wondered if that was good enough. Potter said it was as good as could be expected and it didn’t matter, other teams wouldn’t score more than 55 or so. Just a few minutes later, the Chinese pair, Wang and Chen, accomplished around a 55 and Potter said that’s why they’re so dominant, they jump out to that early lead and are hard to catch. Does she listen to herself? Does she have short-term memory loss from her head’s impact on the water during all those years of diving?

“Well maybe, Diva,” you say, “she’s better at dissecting the actual dives.” Oh, no, kittens, not really. On the first dive by the Chinese pair she went on and on about their amazing synchronization, when I, not a former diver, not an expert, could easily see that one diver dove with her arms spread wide from her body and the other with her elbows close to her body. This is on the dive that earned the 55-ish score.

So forgive me if I say, enough is enough. Couldn’t NBC find someone (Greg Louganis is interested) with the expertise, sense, and acuity necessary and without the horrible voice?