NBC’s Olympic coverage way off

Thursday, July 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

ATLANTA -- NBC continues to sit atop the ratings with its Olympics coverage, but it's also sitting on some of the games' breaking stories.

That was never more evident than Tuesday night, when the network delayed showing until midnight the most dramatic moment of the Atlanta Olympics so far -- gymnast Kerri Strug fighting through a painfully sprained ankle for her final vault to clinch the gold medal for the United States.

"Later tonight," anchor Bob Costas said near the beginning of the network's prime time show, "the conclusion of the women's gymnastics."

The problem is, the conclusion had happened earlier. Much earlier.

Because the IOC's television deal guarantees European right-holders gymnastics action in primetime overseas, the competition was held in late afternoon in Atlanta. It ended at 6:40 p.m. EDT, less than an hour before NBC went on the air and five hours or so before the network showed the outcome.

Forced into taped coverage of the event, NBC chose to show it as the final segment of its show, following the policy of network sports boss Dick Ebersol, who said, "We want to provide the most riveting programming to the largest possible audience."

Large means late, and so the coverage waited. "In about an hour," Costas promised at 8:30 p.m., "women's gymnastics."

By then, NBC's non-rightsholding competitors, networks like CNN and ESPN, had plenty of time to get on the air with news of Strug's heroic vault and its aftermath. CNN had an interview with Strug shortly after 11 p.m., well before the event had reached its climax on NBC.

* WINNING AND HAVING FUN: Lindsay Davenport and the rest of the U.S. women's tennis team are having a good time at the Olympics, and not just because they're winning. The Americans went 3-0 in first-round singles, with Davenport and Mary Joe Fernandez advancing Wednesday to join Monica Seles in the round of 32. Friends as well as teammates, the three players participated in the opening ceremonies and are staying at the Olympic Village. "The whole experience has been unbelievable," Davenport said. "We laugh a lot and talk a lot late at night, and it has been so much fun." The ninth-seeded Davenport won her Olympic debut, defeating Anne Kremer 6-2, 6-1. No. 7 Fernandez, who won a bronze in singles and the gold in doubles at Barcelona, began her bid for another medal by beating Elena Likhovtseva 6-2, 6-4.

* FAILED DRUG TEST: The first athlete to fail a drug test at the Atlanta Olympics received only a reprimand. Cuba's Estela Rodgriguez Villaneva was allowed to keep her silver medal in judo even though she tested positive for furosemide, a banned diuretic. The International Olympic Committee cleared Rodriguez of any doping offense Wednesday, ruling that no cheating was involved. "It is not considered a doping case," IOC spokeswoman Michele Verdier said. "The athlete should have told the doctor of the Cuban team she was taking that drug."

* MOTEL EVACUATED: Dozens of guests, most of them members of the Secret Service in town for the Olympics, were evacuated from a suburban Atlanta motel because of a gas leak. The Knights Inn near Doraville, about 20 miles northeast of Atlanta, was evacuated about 11 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters were called after several guests fell ill from the fumes, said DeKalb County Fire Chief James Rider. Six or seven were overcome and treated at the scene, but none was seriously hurt, he said.