Now gear up for the internet olympics

In what is being labelled the Internet Olympics, it won’t just be Greene gunning for a new world record.

This year’s games are certain to dwarf previous internet records with tens of millions of people set to go online each day for results, commentary and endless statistics.

Even for those watching live television coverage, the internet will be a necessity — plugging the gap for events that may not make it to the screen, giving fans the chance to swap views and satisfying a thirst for trivia on everything from the width of Greene’s chunky thighs to the origins of judo.

“This will be the event that really sees the internet come of age. It will be definite proof that the net is a critical part of any sports coverage,” said Franklin Servan-Schreiber, director of new media at the International Olympics Committee.

But will the internet stand up to the test?

Just as the wide international appeal of the Olympics made the Tokyo Games in 1964 the first major test of modern-day television broadcasting, the Sydney Olympics in September will be the biggest test yet for the internet and not just in sports.

It will also show the web copes when a worldwide audience plugs in at the same time and in many different languages.

IBM, the technology heavyweight behind the official Olympics website (olympics.com), is bracing for well over a billion hits. Millions more virtual spectators will tap into linked sites like nbcolympics.com — the site of US host broadcaster NBC, unofficial sites such as sydney2000.com and a host of other sites giving their own internet coverage.

“We’ve built the largest and most complex infrastructure available on the web,” said Laurie Courage, IBM’s director of internet strategies and web events. “Olympics.com will be one of the most highly trafficked web sites and more than ever before, fans will have a virtual seat at the Games”.

But cheap seats don’t get the best view — the IOC has banned moving images to protect deals struck with broadcasters.

Servan-Schreiber doesn’t think this will lessen the net’s appeal. “People will log on for an update first thing in the morning or in the office and then watch the drama and emotion of it all on television at night”.

While Sydney is not strictly the first online Olympics — both the Nagano 1998 Winter Games and Atlanta 1996 Summer Games had official websites — it is being heralded as the real “Internet Olympics” due to the explosion in global net use.

At the Nagano Games, the main site achieved 646 million worldwide hits during the 16-day event compared with 187 million in Atlanta. More recent, but much smaller events like Wimbledon and Euro 2000, have already beaten those marks by a long way.

There are now 275 million internet users globally, compared to just 40 million four years ago. This is expected to reach 450 million by the end of the year and research shows that sport is one of the main passions of web users along with stocks and sex.

In the four years since Atlanta in 1996, a host of huge nations like China and India, which together make up two thirds of the world’s population, have come of age on line.

They have come of age not just in their people using the net but also using it in their own languages.

“We have taken every precaution so that nothing like a crash happens. That’s why the whole project has been so expensive, running into many millions of dollars,” said Servan-Schreiber.

IBM knows all too well what is at stake if things go wrong.

At Atlanta, well-publicised glitches caused havoc so that Tanzanian boxer Haji Matumla was listed as a lofty 6.35 metres tall while his Ugandan counterpart Franco Argento was just 57 cm. Australian cyclist Bradley McGee was even credited with a world record — 24 hours before the cycling got underway.

Getting the internet side of the Olympics right is also vital for Australia which hopes to use the games to prove its technology credentials as part of an image makeover.

Experts say peaks in traffic for events such as Greene’s 100-metre final could test the limits of internet technology.

IBM, which has run official websites for 35 top sporting events including Wimbledon and the French Open, has been preparing for the Sydney Games ever since Atlanta.

The computer giant has put an army to work building a monster infrastructure which it is confident will cope with many times the anticipated number of net spectators.

Mirror sites have been set up to balance the tidal wave of traffic, and state-of-the-art technology will provide extra capacity by dropping some elements of the site at peak demand.

But there will be none of the riskier gadgetry.

Capacity-hungry moving images are off the menu and IBM is upgrading older systems rather than risking the latest computers and software in what it says will be its last Olympics project.

“We could see some slowing in the network but it’s unlikely it would seize up altogether. There is now a very secure system in place compared to a few years ago, with enough technical savvy behind it to make a crash unlikely,” said Nainish Bapna, technology analyst at Nomura International.

Whatever the outcome, the Internet Olympics will mark another milestone in the transformation of sports viewing.

“Now that they have won sizeable audiences, sports sites need to work on clinching the rights to live broadcasts. That’s the missing trick,” said Steve Nuttall, head of sport at net sports company Sportal which ran the official Euro 2000 site.

Until that time, even the most avid internet users may have to sneak a peek at television if just for 10 seconds — that’s all Maurice Greene will need.