With the U.S. Olympic Trials for Track and Field and Swimming taking place this week and receiving prime-time coverage on NBC, the American public is, for the first time in four years, reminded of the events and stars of these often-forgotten sports. It is true that both track and swimming hold regular national and world championships, but neither receive much attention in the States beyond a paragraph on page 11 of the sports page smashed between a couple of ads.

The Eugene crowd congratulates Tyson Gay (right) and Darvis Patton after they qualified for the Olympics in the 100m yesterday. Getty Images

It is for this reason, that when the two major Olympic sports receive their quadrennial bit of spotlight, that the result is high drama completely unrivaled by their money-making counterparts.

In the sports that we do see on Sportscenter and in giant stadiums across the country, never is so much riding on an athlete's success on a single day.

In the long-jump final just completed at the Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon, the defending Olympic champion Dwight Philips found himself in fourth place at the end of the competition, a miserable three-quarters of an inch from qualifying for the Olympic games in Beijing where he would have been among the favorites.

Watching the anguish in Philips' face as his final jump fell short simply does not compare to the Lakers losing in the NBA Finals or the Rockies in the World Series. When the big-sport pro athletes fail to reach their goals, they have the consolation that another shot is only 12 months away, as well as a wad of cash to dry their tears on.

U.S. long jumper Dwight Philips. Getty Images

However, this is not the case for Philips and other Olympic sport athletes. An off day at the Trials for them can mean four more years of grueling training on a burger flippers salary just so they might take one more shot at qualifying for the one event in their sport that the American public will see.

People who talk of 20-million dollar salaries having killed true sport, should stop complaining about A-Rod and tune into track or swimming, or even table tennis for that matter.

I love watching a ball game as much as the next person, but comparing football to track is like comparing a flashy action flick to a documentary- they are hardly related. Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, and Manny Ramirez are all distant abstractions produced by Nike, Adidas, and ESPN, while athletes completing for an Olympic birth are genuinely human.

It is absolutely worth checking out the week's events if you are at all curious what reality TV would be like if it were actually real.