My two cents.

CBS did manage to get the pronunciation of Nagano right, putting the accent on the second vowel. The name of the Japanese host city of the 1998 Olympic Games caused some European broadcasters no little amount of consternation.

However, in other respects CBS failed to measure up, frustrating many American viewers with its coverage of the Winter Olympics. This year's coverage proved that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) shouldn't grant the bulk of the Olympic broadcast rights to the American TV networks.

I don't pretend to watch the semifinals of curling, that enervating sport (two hours for 10 rounds) born in Scotland in the 14th century and incorporated into the Winter Games in 1988. But what I was hoping to see on TV was sport: competition free from human interest elements, competition mixed with some agony of defeat (as ABC Sports was so fond of saying). Nowadays, the Olympics are just an excuse for the networks to air human interest stories. Why don't they produce special magazine shows to cover that sort of topic? Instead, when CBS wasn't able to provide the sass, it rehashed four-year-old tearjerkers from the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

Imagine the joy at CBS when disaster occurred. Not so much the moment when Austrian skier Hermann "The Herminator" Maier flew over two safety fences, ending up with nothing worse than a headache. The best moment for CBS was when Dutch speedskater Erben Wennemars dislocated his shoulder during a collision in the 500 meter race. Or perhaps when Italian skier Luca Cattaneo went flying at the same spot where The Herminator had taken his fall. CBS was at the hospital before the helicopter that airlifted Cattaneo even arrived. Who said that CBS wasn't eager to exploit every agonizing minute? When such golden moments weren't available, CBS interrupted the Games with crash- and collision-filled promos for the Daytona 500.

According to a survey conducted before the Games began, 60 percent of the viewers who were willing to watch the coverage of the Winter Olympics on CBS were women. Some 40 percent of skiers are female. So it is logical that the network would adapt to this audience. However, this doesn't explain the morbid desire for detailed accounts of accidents. In any case, this focus lost CBS a lot of viewers. By the middle of the Olympics, the network was averaging 16.4 ratings in primetime (33 percent lower than the ratings for the previous Winter Games and 14 percent lower than those of the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, both of which were also broadcast by CBS).

Apparently I'm not the only one complaining about CBS' coverage. In an editorial, The New York Times wrote: "Americans [are] eager for a respite from Monica Lewinsky and Saddam Hussein. But they shouldn't turn to the Olympics for sweetness and light. Just keep an eye on large hill ski jumping."

Nothing was more important to CBS than even second-rate figure skating, not even an American taking an early lead. Indeed, although there are 30 major specialties (nearly double that if both sexes are taken into account), CBS gave thorough coverage to very few. Nowhere could one find the full results of the Games. No list of gold medalists. No summaries of previous events. No panoramic overview of the Games ahead. Only skating, morning, noon and night.

The Picabo Street story was significant. When the American skier was winning the super-G slalom, CBS was showing figure skating that had been taped the previous night. When the American was on the podium receiving the gold medal, CBS was still showing figure skating.

The problem, however, is not just with CBS but with the IOC, which, by selling out to merchants, allowed such poor TV coverage in the U.S. Someone who could break the sponsors' dictatorship over the Olympics is Jean-Claude Killy, who may be tapped as the IOC's next president. It is said that Killy might reduce the role of IOC Vice President Richard Pound, who many feel is responsible for the sponsors' total control over the Olympics.