"Citius, Altius, Fortius" (faster, higher, stronger) is the official Olympic motto, referring, of course, to athletic achievement. But starting Friday, it could also signify the multimedia immersion made possible by 3,600 hours of coverage, with 2,200 available on computer screens and 1,400 on the television screens of not only NBC, but also cable cousins MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Telemundo and Universal HD. Even if viewers are up to the Olympic ideal of faster, higher and stronger, it will be impossible to watch it all, as there are more than 24 hours of coverage a day. And just as technology -- and NBC's deep pockets -- increase the depth and breadth of coverage, the depth and breadth of interest in Olympic viewing is undergoing some seminal shifts. "It's not America sitting around their television sets for two weeks anymore," explains Ben Grossman, a Hopkins native covering (but not gone) Hollywood as editor in chief of Broadcasting and Cable Magazine. "It's the perfect storm of factors, and not one sole thing." One of those factors is the very technology NBC is using to make so much of the Olympics available. The big three networks have mushroomed into the big 300, and the Internet has made it possible to know Olympic results immediately, as opposed to waiting for the packaged prime-time recreation. This often results in lower ratings, particularly if American athletes don't do well. And NBC's competitors seem less afraid of America's athletes than of "American Idol." "Rival networks aren't rolling over like they do for 'Idol,'" says Grossman. Sports scandals can be a demographic drag as well, particularly for "families sitting together" and parents having to explain "why this athlete had to drop out or release the gold medal," said Stephen Ross, a University of Minnesota professor of sports marketing. But it's not just drugs. "It's also 'legal doping' -- or 'techno-doping,' the fine line of what is performance-enhancing equipment, drugs and beverages that are becoming a more gray area." For others, it's the loss of winning against a geopolitical rival like the former Soviet Union. "Younger generations have grown up with a divided Soviet Union, and many of them don't even know what it was," said Ross.

Which doesn't mean that nationalism isn't still a natural part of the games. Former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson, who now runs a sports television consulting company, negotiated for the rights for the winter games in 1992, 1994 and 1998. "One of my directions was to get the anthem into the program. That is the emotional catharsis that makes the Olympics so different from other sports."

Perhaps what's most different from other sports is that the Olympics are the only major sporting event watched more by women than men. This is a trend that has accelerated from Olympic viewing a generation ago: Gender balance was roughly equal in the 1992 Barcelona Games for the ad-centric adult 18-49 demographic. But by 2004 in Athens, the ratings for women aged 18-49 were 16 percent higher for prime-time coverage.

"The beauty of sport, amateurism, individualized sports: There's been a lot of research that shows that those are the type of sports that women gravitate to," explained Ross.

"Individual competition for women seems to rate higher than team competition," concurred Pilson. "Stories are more dramatic, and there is more promotion of individual athletes."

Even bigger than the gender gap is the generational gap. Ratings for Athens were down 39 percent for girls aged 6-17 and were halved for boys that age. The International Olympic Committee has noticed, which is why the hammer throw and other sports descendent from the ancient Greeks will now be joined by BMX biking in Beijing.

This decline in boys' viewing also affects their older brothers. "The typical male 18-34 sports fan -- and I'm one of them -- won't watch gymnastics and swimming and track and field for three years and 50 weeks," chuckled Broadcasting and Cable's Grossman. "But those other two weeks they'll pay attention. But it's still not something they'll have the boys over to watch, like a football game. Instead it's something you watch with your wife and family."

All this makes it hard to mint Olympic heroes. Or even to come up with the key criteria on what makes a hero today. "It's someone who is clean, who wins and is a good role model," says Ross.

"It's Nike," counters Pilson.

Whatever the formula, Olympic heroes are still important in this age of "Guitar Hero" video games. And some families still manage to watch together, despite the changes and challenges of technological and societal shifts.

And sometimes heroes are found in unlikely Olympians.

"We sat together in awe of how much they had totally mastered their sport," said Racheal Deitchler of Ramsey, Minn., recalling how her family once watched the Olympics.

She won't be watching much on TV this year, however. She and her husband, Jason, will be in Beijing, cheering on their son, Jake. He's the Anoka High School student who stunned the wrestling world with the biggest upset of the Olympic trials, becoming the first high-school athlete to make the wrestling team in 32 years.

Oh, and as for the Olympian who most affected the Greco-Roman wrestler, described by Star Tribune sports columnist Rachel Blount as having a "hyperaggressive, in-your-face-style?"

"It was Sarah Hughes," recalls his mom, referring to the figure skater who won gold at the age of 16 in the 2002 Salt Lake City games. "She was an inspiration in the sense that she was so young in what she had accomplished. She wasn't favored to win. She impressed with her performance and how she carried herself.

"With any athlete watching the Olympics, it plants the seed of hope, or that dream, that one day you'll be at that level of competition."