Web Winners look at Olympics on the Net / LJWorld.com

Archive for Monday, September 18, 2000

Knight Ridder Newspapers

September 18, 2000

The Summer Olympics began last week in Sydney, Australia, and Web sites highlighting the games are expecting huge audiences of fans eager to see the competition and get the results many time zones ahead of television.

Here are a few you can check out:

Sydney 2000

More: www.olympics.com.

The "official" site, operated by International Business Machines Corp., expects to handle 6.5 billion hits during the games. As for the Australians, a news item here said they are clearing store shelves of hand-held and big-screen TV sets for watching.

MSNBCSports.Com

More: http://olympics.msnbc.com.

Animated guides to Olympic sports offered here in an "Interactive Library" illustrate the moves and judging rules for a variety of events, including boxing, gymnastics and swimming, along with a quick-reference guide to "Dream Team" basketball, which has made the Americans heavy favorites since 1992.

Video game

More: www.olympicvideogames.com.

There's even an "official" Sydney 2000 video game. Check it out at the site above, or go to the game-maker's site to buy it: www.eidosinter-active.com/.

Olympic Committee

More: www.olympic.org.

A virtual Olympic Museum presents inspirational videos and text narratives at this site for the International Olympic Committee. Links are here for the committees planning the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.

Parody

More: www.funnies.com/tv/olympics.htm.

This site hasn't been updated since 1997, but it includes a still-lively parody of NBC's sappy, unsatisfying TV coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Virtual reality

More: www.4020.net/cgiz/vrsyd.pl.

Here are 360-degree photographs which you, the viewer, can tilt and pan of various Olympic venues, including Bondi Beach, where beach volleyball will be played, and Stadium Australia.

Sports Illustrated

More: http://ccnsi.com/olympics..

Four years ago, Sports Illustrated produced a hard-copy "Olympic Daily" for the games. Now, the coverage is only online. The SI Olympics site includes one of many online Olympic countdown clocks, proving there are still uses for those defunct millennium countdown tickers.