Olympics: Athletes line up for computers

Athletes line up for computers

By GREG AUMAN

It's no surprise to see long lines at an event like the Olympics, but the people lining up each morning in the athletes village aren't fans but athletes.

IBM is sponsoring two "Surf Shacks" in Sydney. One is for athletes only, and the demand for the 70 computers has them waiting in line to get online.

"The Surf Shack opens at 9 a.m. here, and every day by about 8:30 the athletes are lined up outside waiting to get to the computers," said IBM spokeswoman Joyce Lagas, who said the facility has averaged more than 1,500 athlete visits a day. The other Surf Shack is a 55-terminal computer lab floating in Sydney Harbor that fans can use to check e-mail and visit their favorite sites. The Surf Shacks are staffed by 130 people who are fluent in a combined 28 languages.

"I took French for several years, but they never taught me how to say, "Would you like to create a home page?' or "Can I help you scan that photo in?' " Lagas said.

The athletes have had plenty of fan mail to read because of an IBM program that allows fans to send messages. More than 200,000 messages have been sent. Fanmail.olympic.ibm.com is where you can send messages to an athlete, a team, all the athletes from one country or all the athletes at the Games. The seven athletes who have received the most messages are from Australia, led by swimmer Ian Thorpe. He has more than 13,000 to read -- a tough task because athletes are asked to limit their visits to 45 minutes. The most popular American is gymnast Amy Chow, ranked eighth overall with about 1,000 messages. Swimmer Lenny Krayzelberg, already with two gold medals, is second among U.S. athletes with 750 messages.

To get a look at the Surf Shacks, check out the site between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. and click on the webcam for a live view. A ticker updates the names of athletes who have stopped in each day.

WEB POLICE: The firms hired to police the Internet for unauthorized broadcasts said they have caught about 30 people since the Games began.

Nearly all violators yielded quickly when faced with threats of copyright infringement lawsuits from the International Olympic Committee, said Dave Powell, president of Copyright Control Services, which monitors the Internet on the IOC's behalf from a 12-person office in south London.

NBC's Web site is the only site authorized to show Olympic video, and by the time that footage appears online, it is at least a day old -- so as not to ruin the network's coverage.

YOU BOUGHT WHAT?: Olympic-related items continue to thrive at auction site eBay.com, with more than 10,000 auctions ending this week. The highlights:

An "authentic, used" Olympic torch signed by Muhammad Ali was at more than $2,600, with the auction ending just before midnight tonight.

A rare "Snowman" Pez dispenser issued for the 1976 Winter Olympics in Austria went for $375.99 on Thursday.

The bouquet of flowers thrown into the stands by gymnast Dominique Dawes after the United States won the gold medal in 1996 was at $330 Thursday night.

One Australian with a sense of humor put "Olympic Games" for auction last week. "One slightly used Olympic Games. ... See the increase in traffic! Smell the added pollution!" reads the description. The auction drew two bids, closing at $7,633.

CHATWATCH: Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, a silver medalist in Atlanta, chats from the athletes village Surf Shack at 7 tonight at clubs.lycos.com. ... There's a busy week of chats at www.olympics.com.au, including Australian medalist Sam Riley at 10 tonight.

RINGLETS: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has an outstanding exhibition from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin at ushmm.org/olympics. The efforts of Jewish and black athletes are detailed, and though the images of Nazi Olympic propaganda are startling, the feature's final pictures are its most solemn: a gallery of Olympians killed during the Holocaust. ... Who says there's no video from the Olympics? Viewsydney.com/index3.htm has a live view of downtown Sydney. ... Florida2012.org, the official site for Tampa's bid to host the 2012 Olympics, seems like a decent site until you check out some of its rivals' sites. Check out the intro at nyc2012.com.

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report. If you have a site to suggest, send an e-mail to staff writer Greg Auman at aumanac1@aol.com.