Web sites steal the Sydney show

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 30, 2000

Sydney might mark the beginning of an Internet era for the Olympics. The tape-delayed television offerings steered viewers online for news. With an international spotlight focused on the Web, many sites stepped forward to fill a void between the printed page and NBC's prerecorded drama.

In the spirit of these Olympic Games, these medals to the sites that have shined brightest were handed out 15 hours ago, but now you can't help but notice the added level of human interest. Cue the violins.

Best overall sites

nbcolympics.com: (Gold) The heavy favorite going in, NBC's site didn't disappoint. The screen-size background images worked well, the layout was easy to navigate, and the site had plenty of schedules to help figure out when everything happened and when we could watch it.

The "Athlete's Voice" diaries were candid and informative. There could have been more "Picture Show" features, which took a sequence of 10 screengrabs from NBC's broadcast to tell stories that most single photos couldn't.

The site also deserves credit for not burying negative stories. Drug scandals and controversies were on the main page, where they belonged. The network's TV coverage was mostly candy and fluff, but the site kept a newsy, straightforward feel.

olympics.com: (Silver) The Games' official site, sponsored by IBM, had a clean look, FanMail to send to your favorite athletes and Webcam views of the Olympic Village.

One page was a cross between Napster and the United Nations, offering recordings of the national anthems for close to 200 countries. Sounds like the same orchestra recorded all of them, so by the time you get to Zambia, it's not exactly a passionate performance. For what it's worth, the Panama offering sounds nothing like Van Halen.

The IBM site also loses points because the company forced all non-IBM laptops at Olympic venues to have their logos covered in black tape. More tricks: before the Olympics, IBM had the rights to nbc.olympics.com and redirected people looking for NBC's site to its page.

cnnsi.com/olympics: (Bronze) CNNSI.com is typically third in traffic behind ESPN.com and Sportsline.com, but the site's Olympic coverage has drawn higher traffic than both, according to numbers released by Alexa Internet Research. The key draw is content, with Sports Illustrated staffers combining for a half-dozen Web-exclusive stories on any given day. The site's "fly-over" 3D Skyline technology is the closest thing to being in Sydney.

Best athlete sites

rulongardner.com: (Gold) It's not sharp, high-tech or cool, but it's exactly what you'd expect from the gold medal wrestler. Click on "Resume" and you scroll down two screens before he even mentions wrestling: under "Interests," he lists "Olympic Wrestling Team, 2000." How many gold medalists' home pages list their college GPA, to the nearest thousandth of a point? The site is so humble, you've got to love it. Last update? "September 27, 2000: Rulon Gardner beats undefeated Karelin for the gold. Congratulations, Rulon!"

michaeljohnson.org: (Silver) His official site gets a boost because it's run by Quokka Sports, which produces nbcolympics.com. Nifty intro, with plenty of updates on Johnson's final Olympics. Johnson wired himself with equipment to monitor heart rate, strides and speed during practices leading up to his gold medal run in the 400 meters. He calls it "Speed Science," and it puts his site in a class of its own.

marionjones.com: (Bronze) Like the long jump, this is an event in which she won't take home the gold. You can register for a chance to meet the world's fastest woman, and there's a nice gallery with fresh pictures, but it isn't flawless. Jones won her second gold medal around 5 a.m. Thursday, and the site's "Medal Count" feature still showed one gold half a day later.

A prominent "Chat" link is only a tease, pointing people to a notice that "Marion deeply apologizes for not being able to chat with her fans!"

And though one of Jones' strengths has been her ability to handle the pressure involved in being the center of the world's attention, the site hasn't been as lucky. Heavy traffic put it down for much of the day Thursday.

- How did the Internet change the way you watched the Olympics? Which site did you like most? Send an e-mail to staff writer Greg Auman at aumanac1@aol.com.

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