The Olympics were just getting underway July 27 when the American swim team was reminded of how Australian swimmer Cate Campbell reveled in her country having had more gold medals than the United States (13 to seven) at the 2023 World Swimming Championships.

There has long been an intense rivalry between the swim teams that has spilled over into trash talk, but Campbell really went off on the cowbells in the stands that support Americans in the pool and even the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” If nothing succeeds like success, nothing irks like it either.

While the National Anthem comment seems petty, Campbell may have a point when you consider NBC’s cheerleading coverage of the Paris Games as we roll through the second week of competition. It’s not just that commentators sound more like fans than journalists, though that’s a big part of it.

Why does swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines, a three-time gold medalist and Hall of Famer who knows how to crunch the numbers, always shout into the microphone? Why are on-site reporters peppering competitors with inane questions like, What do you hope other people say of you after the games? (The best answer came from the athlete who said simply, “That I did my best.”)

How many times to we have to watch the medal count or hear that gymnast Simone Biles is the greatest of all time (GOAT)? Has time ended? Why isn’t it enough to say that she has won more medals than any other gymnast and let her record speak for itself? (This has nothing to do with Biles. I have made the same point about calling Novak Djokovic — who, coming off knee surgery, defeated wunderkind Carlos Alcaraz for the gold — the tennis GOAT. It’s about using language precisely.)

Speaking of tennis, I was not surprised to read that Peacock, where NBC has ghettoized the so-called not-ready-for-primetime sports, cut away from the Djokovic-Alcaraz match, a great, late-stage rivalry, for gymnastics — and, as one miffed viewer put it, Thai synchronized swimming.

Let’s not be naive. NBCUniversal paid $7.65 billion to extend its rights to the Olympics only to come up bust with the past three Summer Games due to Asian time zones and Covid. But now NBC has a marquee city in a convenient European time zone and a captive audience, and it’s doubling down to market the heck out of its stars and its shows as well as U.S. athletes, which the audience (and advertisers) primarily want to see. (Hence the ubiquitousness of Snoop Dogg, who joins NBC’s “The Voice” this fall and whose ingratiating, laid-back presence lets us in on the joke. Certainly, he gets points — at least a 9.99 for degree of difficulty — for hanging with the eternally haughty Martha Stewart.)

To be fair, the athletes, who compete against the same people all over the world, are gracious to teammates and opponents alike, and the network has let us in on other nations’ joy as when Julien Alfred from the tiny Caribbean county of Saint Lucia beat out the heavily favored Sha’Carri Richardson in the 100 meters. It was her country’s first medal, and it was gold. Back home in Saint Lucia there was dancing in the streets.

On the other hand, imagine the disappointment Richardson felt when she didn’t take the gold. Part of the problem with “we’re No. 1, we’re No. 1” is that there’s no margin for error.

I have to believe, though, that with all its problems the United States is a magnanimous country still, one that understands that part of greatness is appreciating it in others.

And as the Olympics began its second week on Sunday, Aug. 4, we even got to see a few minutes of Djokovic — a gold medal winner at last — weeping in the stands as Mike Tirico, NBC’s lead primetime host, noted,what the games mean to athletes — amateur and professional, American and foreign, alike.