Branding

Every Olympic athlete who competes needs a brand to sell to corporations. One swimmer smiles and giggles, a gymnast repeats the question before carefully spouting rehearsed responses. A sprinter does his lightning bolt stance, others mug for the camera at the starting line.
Girl gymnasts with little in the way of curves and squirrel voices pronounce how they WANT that medal. A woman weightlifter does her comedy routine. Athletes preen and strut and smile on cue, drape themselves in their countries flag, fall to the ground in pain or ecstasy. It's all choreographed down to the facial expressions. Meanwhile, boxing, once a staple of the games, has virtually no coverage because research has shown it doesn't entice viewers like it did.
BP and TD Ameritrade are not even American companies and their commercials state how proud they are to support our athletes.
The US girl that missed her vault and got silver instead of gold looked shocked, sitting there unblinking. The announcers came right out and stated she would win long before her turn came. The difference between gold and silver amounts to millions in endorsements. I wish that little fact would have been mentioned.
Her fragile brand was damaged.