Former sportswriter here, about to criticize many of my own.

I am old enough to remember when ABC covered the Summer Olympics, a glory period that ended with the Los Angeles Games in 1984. ABC had a very popular sports features program, “Wide World of Sports,” and used that same approach in the Olympics to introduce Americans to little-known athletes from around the world who had fantastic back stories.

In contrast, NBC, which took over coverage in 1988, picks a handful of American athletes that it believes will win multiple medals and then over-promotes them, often to the point of making even ardent sports fans sick to death of hearing yet another angle to the oft-repeated story of USA basketball, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky or Simone Biles.

And then, the sportswriters from major newspapers follow NBC’s lead, putting pressure on athletes and resulting in fewer gold medals than expected.

The Olympics are one of the few truly international competitions, but the coverage I get these days is far too narrow. Sportscasters and sportswriters, you take much of the blame on this one.

Diane Scholfield Vista