I would say I've only actually watched 45 minutes of the Olympics, but I keep up a little in the paper. This whole Hamm thing is why I don't think Gymnastics, Figure Skating, Diving, etc. are sports. Are they competitions? Yes. Are the competitiors athletes? Very much so. But the subjective nature by which winners are determined is very suspicious. The most amazing thing I've seen is the white guy who won the 400m. No white American has won an Olympic sprint since '64, and I never thought it would happen again.
As far as NBC, that's why I don't watch. I cannot stand human interest stories. But I don't mind US-centric coverage. It's always been this way since the Olympics have been on TV. The reason other countries don't focus on the home team like US television does is b/c their home countries aren't competitive in every sport like the US is. Of course NHK will cover track different than NBC, just like Chinese TV will cover table tennis (an Asian Dominated sport) much differently than NBC (if NBC even covered table tennis).