‘Today’ adds human dimension to Olympics coverage

NBC paid $793 million for TV rights to get inside Athens’ Olympic venues and create epic dramas that deliver huge prime-time audiences. The network’s “Today” show, broadcasting from just outside the Games’ main stadium, is in a parallel universe.

“I’m going to take another run at the high dive for next week,” co-host Matt Lauer said before last Thursday’s broadcast. “But at the moment, the powers-that-be here won’t let me go off it.”

Lauer seems serious about falling nearly 33 feet. But with morning TV, there’s more to the Olympics than the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Last week, Lauer learned to shot put from U.S. silver medalist Adam Nelson, and he and weatherman Al Roker got in the pool with the U.S. synchronized swimmers.

This week, Katie Couric might jump with U.S. track star Gail Devers. Says Couric, joking about how she’ll try to look like Devers: “I’ve bought my press-on nails.” And she’s taped a segment in which Marion Jones helps her long jump. “It was pathetic,” Couric says. “But a world record for morning TV anchors.”

“Today” supervising producer Mary Alice O’Rourke says the show is free to give out event results “anytime” but rarely does — there’s isn’t much “shocking news” during the day — and NBC Sports and its cable TV outlets have daytime coverage, anyway.

But there’s always fodder for features around Athens. Senior producer Don Nash says a “restaurant where women put grapes in your mouth” is on tap, and Roker might try tae kwon do.

The “Today” segments also help humanize athletes who can seem deified in prime time, like Dana Vollmer, 16, who came back from heart surgery to swim on the U.S. squad that set a new world record for the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.

“I had goose bumps,” she said after her TV appearance. “I was sweating and had chills. But it was really fun.”