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Online Olympics Web sites

By CNN Interactive Producer Steve Baxter

(CNN) -- Whether you want information on Bobsledding or the Biathlon, to keep up with what's happening in Nagano for the '98 Winter Olympics, there's no better place to go than the World Wide Web. It's not exactly front-row tickets or even television coverage, but you can get a depth of detailed background information and up-to-the-minute results that can be found no where else.

The official Winter Olympics site is sponsored by the Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee and just like the summer Olympics in Atlanta, this site is powered by the computing muscle of IBM.

A daily news section presents the day's top stories in an easy-to-read newspaper format. Visitors can take a virtual tour of each Olympic venue using a VRML plugin that lets you explore the inside and outside of each event site, rendered in 3-D. A dramatic Shockwave movie using satellite images takes visitors on an aerial tour of the region. Detailed information about the Nagano Prefecture and the rugged Japan Alps, known as "the roof of Japan," are also included.

If you want to know more about who is participating in the games, the site breaks down the competitors geographically, giving information about each country and their individual team members. You can also search for athletes by their names and the events they are participating in. Each Olympic sport is featured, with schedules, technical details and the rules and regulations for the competition.

Kid's Plaza, a special section for Olympic fun seekers, is hosted by "Snowlets" Sukki, Nokki, Lekki, and Tsukki, the official mascots of the games. It includes reference sections written just for kids and lots of Olympics-related activities and games. Children can send messages, electronic postcards and share stories with other kids from around the world.

IBM's FanMail site lets fans send personal messages to their favorite athletes or teams. The 3,000 participating athletes can read their e-mail when they visit the Surf Shack in Nagano's Olympic Village, a hip Internet cafe built in the style of a traditional Japanese teahouse. There they can get online Olympic information and even create their own personal Web pages.

Nagano makes Olympic history this year with the first snowboarding medal events and the Mountain Zone is doing a live Webcast. The Mountain Zone is a "high altitude" Web site that specializes in winter and mountain-related sports. They'll be at the Giant Slalom and Halfpipe events reporting on the results. Mountain Zone has a pre-Olympic interview with popular U.S. skier Picaboo Street and there's also an article about Nagano's famous hot-tubbing snow monkeys with photographs by wildlife photographer Art Wolfe.

If you're watching the games on CBS and want to know when and if your favorite events will be broadcast, go to www.winterolympics.com for television schedules. There's also a medal count page, a message forum to discuss general Olympic issues and an arcade section with a collection of Shockwave games that let you simulate skiing, bobsled, curling and figure skating.

TNT is also broadcasting the games. For its schedule go to CNN Sports Illustrated. There, you'll find the latest headlines, columns by sportscasters Jim Huber and Phil Jones and "The Olympic Mailbag," a service that lets visitors post e-mail questions to sports experts. If you want to know more about the history of the winter games, "The Cold Wars" special section uses the Sports Illustrated archives for a look at past competitions.

If you want the official's take on Olympic history and its future, go to The International Olympic Committee venue at www.olympic.org. The newly revamped site is online just in time for the Nagano games and offers an inside look at the worldwide Olympics organization, with a look at progress towards the Sydney games in 2000 and the next Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. It also chronicles the history of the Olympic Movement by taking you on a tour of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Related sites:

• The Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee
• IBM FanMail
• The Mountain Zone
• CBS Sports
• CNNSI Winter Olympics Section
• The International Olympic Committee

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