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BYU professor Jared Ward has been in Rio de Janeiro for three weeks now, living in the Olympic Village and watching some of the games' best moments up close as he prepares to run in Sunday's marathon.

And, yet, every time something happens — even if it involves himself — it seems to Ward like he hears about it from home first.

"Every article that is written or every interview I do, I see on Facebook some friend or family member has posted it before I've even found out that it was published," Ward said. "I feel like my family and friends in Utah are so up on what's going on and so excited about the games that they're keeping me informed."

Ward's supporters are hardly alone.

Throughout the Olympics, Salt Lake City has been the nation's top-rated television market, according to NBC, with more than 20 percent of its homes tuning into the network's prime-time broadcast each night. If the trend holds through the weekend, Utahns will be standing atop the ratings podium for an eighth-straight time.

With due respect to Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, we're No. 1.

But why? That's harder to ascertain.

The Salt Lake Tribune asked a number of experts from various fields to offer their best theories/guesses, ranging from nostalgia to national pride to the influence of the LDS Church.

When the torch was lit in Salt Lake City in 2002, Utah Sports Commission President Jeff Robbins suspects, the fire never went out.

"Part of it is we have such a great base of Olympic supporters from the winter sports that we have," he said. "And also because hosting the Olympics obviously educated the fan base and gave them that experience."

The Sports Commission has tried to leverage Utahns love for the snow into interest for summer games, too, bringing Olympic trials and other high-end events for fencing, volleyball and weightlifting, among others, to Utah.

"I don't think there's anywhere else in the world that's done a better job of building this year-round Olympic base with all the events we do," Robbins said.

There may indeed be a lingering effect.

But if being a former host city boosts ratings, you might expect Atlanta or Los Angeles to be somewhere in the mix.

"Maybe Salt Lake City got Olympic fever and kept with it, but that doesn't explain everything," said University of Alabama sports media professor Andy Billings, who has written books on the Olympics.

Billings instead wondered if it might be a matter of timing. On Wednesday night this week, six of NBC's top 10 metered markets were either in the Mountain or Central time zones. With late starts on the East and West coasts, maybe the friendliness of a 7 p.m. start time in middle America helps ratings.

"People in the Mountain Time Zone could actually watch the prime-time telecast without being a zombie at work the next day," Billings said.

Other media experts wondered if the state's lack of a Major League Baseball team leaves a gap the Olympics fill, though big-league cities Denver, San Diego, Minneapolis and St. Louis also were in NBC's top 10 markets for its prime-time broadcast Wednesday.

Could it be all of the outdoor lovers in the state? The United Health Foundation lists Utah as the seventh-healthiest state in the union, after all. Still, others suggested it could come down to Utah's large families with young children ­— or perhaps its reputation for limited night life — that has us parked in front of the tube.

Southern Utah University history professor Dave Lunt, however, has long suspected The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Utah's large Mormon population have fostered this Olympic craving.

"I can't think of any other church where an integral part of the building is a basketball court," said Lunt, who grew up in Salt Lake City.

While a graduate student at Penn State, Lunt wrote a paper titled, "Mormons and the Olympics: Constructing an Olympic Identity." In it, Lunt made the case that the state's predominant faith used the Olympics to promote its doctrine to its own members as well as help mainstream the religion to the rest of the world.

Within the church, Lunt said, Mormon Olympians have been held up as shining examples of piety and adherence to the "Word of Wisdom," the LDS health code prohibiting the use of drugs, alcohol and other substances.

"It's wholesome," he said. "Maybe they're rooting for other Mormons. Maybe it's this gospel of healthy living and healthy lifestyle that they've historically responded to."

As for Ward, who, on Sunday morning in Brazil, will realize his own dream of competing as an Olympian, his love for the games has been about something he can't quite pinpoint.

"I don't feel like it was one of those things where it came around and I would watch it religiously. I've never felt like that was a pattern in our house," said the 27-year-old from Davis County. "But I always remember feeling this kind of nostalgia toward the Olympics. It's the pinnacle of sports."

Twitter: @aaronfalk