Fans have a gateway to athletes through e-mail

If cheering for your favorite Olympians from your living room hasn't been enough in the past week, there is a more direct way to show your support.

Gateway, the official technology sponsor of the Winter Games, is inviting fans to visit its stores and record a free video message, which is then e-mailed to the athlete or team of your choice.

Gateway is hosting two CyberSpot centers (online atcyberspot2002.com) in the athletes' village, where competitors can use 50 computers to check e-mail from fans and from home. IBM had similar centers in Atlanta and Sydney for the Summer Games, helping homesick athletes feel closer to their part of the world.

"The Eastern Europeans are in here the most," said Gateway spokesman Greg Lund, recalling a Hungarian skater who sent a video valentine home last week. "But both centers are busy all the time."

Skaters have been the most popular targets for the messages, with Michelle Kwan leading the way with 1,867 through Tuesday. Todd Eldredge (1,377) and bronze medalist Timothy Goebel (1,064) were next, with Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen closing out a skating sweep of the top five spots.

Beth Wood, manager of the Gateway store south of Countryside Mall in Clearwater, said speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno has been her customers' most popular choice. Her store has sent five to 10 video e-mails each day, and a group from the local Boys and Girls Club will be by today to send another batch of Utah-bound congratulations.

Video messages are limited to 30 seconds, though among the celebrity samples shown online, former President Bill Clinton took a full 55 seconds for his. Others ranging from actor Chris Tucker to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle kept within the time constraints.

Gateway also is giving customers commemorative Olympic pins featuring its mascot cow on a bobsled. If you don't want one for free, of course, there always is auction site eBay.com, where more than 150 are up for bid. One of the free variety went for $11 Tuesday and a more limited version -- without the bobsled, for you avid cow-pin collectors -- went for $127 last week.

Gateway also has a store at 2907 N Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

NO BONES ABOUT IT: If your Winter Olympics knowledge doesn't extend to skeleton, check outskeletonsport.com for explanations and 3,500 searchable photos, or hit alexcoomber.com, home to the sledder who could give Great Britain its first medal in Salt Lake City.

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation's site (usbsf.com) has an online skeleton game with tips to keep you off the ice. Best, though, is soule-man.com, where U.S. medal hopeful Christopher Soule hawks "I (heart emblem) SKELETON" T-shirts and offers to put your corporate logo on the top of his helmet as he slides headfirst at close to 85 mph.

One unanswered question: Why do the Olympic folks still spell it bobsleigh?

TID-BYTES: From the Silly Questions Dept., Buccaneers.com humbly asks its fans if Jon Gruden was the right man for the job. Ninety percent of voters are saying yes. ... Baseball fans seeking the most annoying gift imaginable can go to mlb.com, where Bud Selig's boys are hawking Buddy Big League, "the newest singing/dancing sensation," a doll that can also chant "Hey, Batter, Batter, Batter, Batter, Swiiiiiing, Batter!" It's available in your team colors for $35. Get those Expos ones fast. ... More public outcry: Search engineLycos.com reports that gold-medal Canadian skater Jamie Sale gets about 20 times as many searches as her skating partner, David Pelletier. Sale soared to 22nd on Lycos' most-searched-topic list this week, still barely a toe-pick ahead of the Westminster Dog Show and the late Waylon Jennings.

-- If you have a question or comment about the Olympics and the Internet or a site to suggest, e-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com.

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