Nothing says great TV like an Olympic rivalry

China's gold-winning women's gymnastics team (right) proved too much for the US team (left), which took the silver. (Mike Black/Reuters)

It's nice to have an enemy. Just ask NBC.

One week into the Beijing Olympics, ratings continue to soar, crushing the numbers from previous games in Sydney and Athens. Last Friday's tape-delayed opening ceremony drew NBC's largest audience since the finale of "Friends." The super-hyped spectacle surely has helped, as has the medal quest of swimmer Michael Phelps. But there's one overarching reason why these games are so compelling, why tracking the medal count is suddenly fun, why about 30 million viewers are tuning in each night. Finally, we've found ourselves a rival again.

Fueled by the perfect metaphor of a 12-hour time difference, the Beijing games have shaped up beautifully to be a matter of us versus the Chinese. Democracy vs. the Politburo. Kobe vs. Yao. Our determined, imperfect gymnasts against the uber-trained products of a government machine. It's the meatiest Olympic rivalry since the fall of the Soviet bloc, and it creates a powerful rooting interest. And at a time when our country is starting to feel like an underdog again - where, exactly, does the dollar stand against the yuan? - there's no more satisfying opponent than a growing, flawed Goliath.

The key word here is "flawed": Even when the Chinese triumph we can read some sense of American pride into the results. Sure, we appreciated that $300 million opening show, which NBC's Matt Lauer called "awe-inspiring, and perhaps a little intimidating." Then we got to revel in the controversies, from the kerfuffle over computer-generated fireworks to the news that the Chinese national anthem was ghost-sung by a girl the government had deemed insufficiently cute.

State-sponsored looks-ism has been held up as shockingly fascist, but really, when hasn't American culture been obsessed with appearance? Still, an undercurrent of NBC's coverage is the notion that these powerful Chinese are really different from us. Yes, the network has aired its share of glowing features, oohing and and aahing over China's aggressive modernization and natural beauty - and, on "Today," the virtues of Chinese fashion models. But on Wednesday night, correspondent Mary Carillo's cheerful report focused on the weirdness of Chinese cuisine.

"There are things that people eat in this country that it would not occur to any of the rest of us to eat!" she said.

"That's frightening, actually!" Bob Costas chimed in.

Then came the video of Carillo traveling from restaurant to restaurant, holding up the likes of duck lips for the camera. In the end, she handed Costas a fried scorpion on a stick. The message: These people eat bugs. They cannot be trusted.

That's another way the Chinese are a satisfying target. Just as it feels good to shout "steroids" at Jason Giambi - especially when the Yankees are winning - it's nice to justify our losses with self-righteousness. Some Chinese accomplishments can't be denied; when their divers take gold medals, there's not much we can say. But when the US women's gymnastics team faltered under pressure this week, the images spoke volumes. In one corner, the tiny waifs of China. In the other, our more muscular, weathered, world-weary American crew.

And if the NBC announcers largely steered clear of rumors, not everyone got the message. Former Olympic coach Bela Karolyi, now an NBC commentator and husband of the team coordinator, couldn't resist a backhanded dig. "I have to commend the Chinese team, good kids, nothing to say about it," he told Costas after the team medal event. "Too bad they are underaged, and they shouldn't be legally accepted."

Too bad in a way, but wonderful in another. Whether or not the Chinese are playing by every rule - and plenty of high-profile American Olympians have also proved untrustworthy over the years - they're good enough to win a lot of the time. And we're good enough to make for a formidable challenge, maybe even come out ahead. At press time, the medals race was neck-and-neck. As a viewer, it's hard to ask for better.

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. For more on TV, go to www.boston.com/viewerdiscretion