The BBC coverage has been generally pretty appalling, but actually I think Clare Balding is one of the OK spots.
Compared to the others anyway.
Gaby Logan is truly awful, trying to be flirty and sexy all the time while stumbling over names and sports and clearly not having the faintest clue what she's talking about. A classic gob-on-a-stick.
Adrian Chiles matey-down-the-pub act works for football but not in an more catholic environment where he just comes across as boorish.
That bloody sailing woman might be very good in a boat but hasn't got the faintest clue how to present to camera - bobs around like a buoy in a force 9 gale. The best thing they could do would be to lash her hands together.
The "local features" from Veronica Wang or whatever her name is. They're so badly written and superficial they would fail an O level media studies course. But she's very pretty so who cares - not whichever producer fancies getting in her pants by giving her some on-air slots. "Yes Veronica it is a microphone in my pants."
As for the production of the nightly programme... The Phelps-Jaws thing is lost on anyone under the age of 30 and the Monkey magic segment is less funny than a 1950s newsreel. Don't mention the cardboard cutout.
My favourite moment so far was the sailing reporter (not the stupid blonde, they only let her do pre-prepared links) reporting from the abandoned medal race in the sailing by describing the fact that they had stopped sailing because of lack of wind as "dramatic scenes".
The interactive coverage is OK except it would be nice if they went to the trouble of using clips that didn't have the "LIVE" caption on them when they are clearly being replayed. But that would require basic effort to log feeds and probably got axed in favour of Matthew Pinsent's breakfast budget.
It's clear they've put all the budget into flashy stuff - graphics and scores of high-profile presenters. Not the basics like research and logging.
I suspect that the root of the problem is that just as generals fight the previous war, the BBC is presenting the previous Olympics. They prepared to have lots of prepared and packaged coverage and make it look stylish, but they've been caught out by actually having plenty of sport to talk about and unfortunately they haven't had the courage to throw out all the "here's one we prepared earlier" stuff.