COSTAS OFFERS RELIEF FROM ANALYSTS.

Byline: John Nelson Associated Press 

Thank goodness for Bob Costas. And that just goes to show how wrong you can be about somebody.

I used to think Costas had to sit on his ego just to see over his desk, that he had to use the freight elevator at NBC because his head was so big. In other words, I didn't like him much.

Either he's gotten better, or I've gotten smarter.

Costas really is a good studio host, probably in part because of all the blue-collar time he's put in on NBC's pregame and halftime NBA shows.

Anyway, it's really paying dividends at the Olympics, where Costas acts as NBC's prime-time host, a job made so important for so many years at ABC by Jim McKay.

When others become too chatty, too silly, too vacuous or too bubbly, NBC throws it back to Costas, and it's all right again for a while. His perspective and sense of humor are the anchors when NBC's on-site announcers - particularly its analysts - are swept up by too much emotion.

``There will be no on-air rooting for U.S. athletes in Atlanta,'' NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol promised before the Games began.

Maybe he didn't tell that to Summer Sanders, former U.S. swimming gold medalist who only recently was named to sit alongside Dan Hicks at the pool. While he's at it, Ebersol might also remind Sanders that silence is golden.

Somebody must have spiked the pool with Mr. Bubble when Sanders was swimming. She talks too much, too quickly and too loudly. You know why all those breaststrokers swim underwater? So they can't hear Summer Sanders screaming into the microphone.

And if she says the word ``awesome'' once more, reassign her to ``Nick At Nite.'' There, she'd rule. Cool, huh

Both Sanders and Hicks ought to be admonished to pay a little closer attention, too. They almost blew the call on the third gold medal of the Games for Irish swimmer Michelle Smith, virtually ignoring her in the 200 individual medley until she touched home the winner.

In Sanders' defense, she's new at this, and she's obviously trying hard, so we'll wait a few days before bringing out the really heavy instruments of torture.

Artistically, the best part of NBC's swim coverage has been visual. The submersible cameras that NBC uses to follow the swimmers underwater are, to borrow a phrase, awesome.

On the news side, NBC broke the story about Olympic swimmer Janet Evans qualifying for the 800-meter freestyle with a broken toe. That was a nice piece of work by Jim Gray.

NBC was a little stronger on its other prime-time killer event, gymnastics. Making good on its promise to tell the human-interest stories of the Games, NBC had good features on both America's Kerri Strug and the former Soviet champion, Vitaly Scherbo.