It was a perfectly sad — but perfect — prime-time moment, as Jordyn Wieber, the defending world champion, got the news that she had missed the finals and wouldn’t compete for the all-around gold medal.

But really, why all the fuss? Is the rule restricting each country to two competitors just sort of silly? Sure. But the Olympics are full of rules that sacrifice competition in favor of inclusion. 
Maybe the real problem is that USA Gymnastics is something less than a pure meritocracy. Ask Elizabeth Price. The upstart gymnast finished fourth in the Olympic Trials. But she didn’t make the five-member team, because McKayla Maroney, who finished seventh, got the Olympic berth because of her strength in the vault. Price had to settle for being an alternate.

But there’s another reason for the melodrama. Wieber was tonight’s Queen of the Prime Time Olympics, and she’d share her pain, and her running mascara, with all of America.

But there is another, less obvious Olympics.

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