Now that the Olympics have started, Americans can put on display the thing they do better than anyone else in the world. Whining.

I love a good chance to complain as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but we really ramp it up as a nation when the Olympics roll around.

It seems as if we have to make fun of a sport or complain about its foreign nature if we’re not good at it. Where’s the American spirit in that?

Instead of having our comedians crack jokes about biathlon, which makes perfect sense, why don’t we suit the Vice President up for competition?

That was a low blow, I know, but someone had to do it.

But seriously, what about cross-country skiing and shooting offends Americans so much? Probably the losing more than anything. And that’s what bothers me the most.

I admit it: I am an Olympics geek. I have piles of video tapes in the basement that I have never looked at from past Olympics. I love this kind of stuff.

So why do American sports commentators have to do everything they can to convince people the Olympics are a waste of time.

Sure, some of these sports don’t seem too logical and the fact that a bunch of them are decided by judges takes some of the fun out of it.

But if you can’t get excited by the possibility of someone falling after jumping off a huge mountain, you don’t have a pulse.

And when you have a choice of riding down an icy track on your stomach, on your back or jammed in a sled with one or three other people, that’s a recipe for entertainment.

Still, Neanderthals who can’t look beyond major pro sports have to fill sports talk radio with talk of how the Olympics aren’t interesting because Bode Miller didn’t win a gold medal.

Um, dude. Another American did. That’s interesting to me.

None of this keeps me from having my own issues with the Olympics. Like many people, I absolutely detest the television coverage. Well, except for the extensive coverage of curling, especially the cute American team. The women’s team, that is.

Is it that difficult for NBC to tell us exactly when certain things will air? I mean, “American Idol” and possibly a few other shows are kicking the Olympics’ butt in the ratings, so you would think NBC might let us know when we can watch the things we find interesting.

With all apologies to fans of figure skating, I don’t need to sit through that while I wait to see snowboarders knock each other down the mountain in snowboard cross, one of my new favorite sports.

Save the “snowboarders can’t pass a drug test” jokes because they’re the ones bringing home all the gold medals.

Except for the sports commentators stuck back here in the U.S. They’re standing on the top of the podium for the whining competition.

I wish we would focus more on the biathlon instead.