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The Winter Olympics is a great tradition that brings people from around the world to one specific place. Even if you are not a participant, a family member supporting your loved one, or one of the lucky towns people in Vancouver that get to be apart it, you still want to experience the 2010 Winter Olympics. Many well known websites have given people the chance to virtually experience the Olympics. Google, Bing, Yahoo/Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter have given people different opportunities to be updated about the progress of the Olympics.
On Google, you can take a virtual tour of the Olympics. Bing has created a Winter Olympics app for people to receive updated news. On this app, people can also see the medal count, the different venues, and photos. Yahoo has a site directly for the games. This site gives users live results, photos, news, and many more. On Yahoo's Flickr people get post their pictures from the 2010 Winter Olympics. The very popular Facebook has an official page for the Olympics. Besides just looking at news, people can share their own experiences about the Olympics. Users can even become fans of Olympic athletes and teams. Lastly, Twitter has some athletes participating updating their pages for the fans. With all this options and many more, becoming a part of the 2010 Winter Olympics is just a click away.
The 2010 Winter Olympics have not been running as smoothly as planned. The weather has been causing problems outdoors and as of Monday February, 15 the problem shifted indoors. To promote "Going Green" the Olympic Committee chose to use a battery powered Zamboni(the machine that smooths the surface of the ice). Unfortunately, there were mechanical difficulties with the battery powered Zamboni. The event staff at the arena was forced to use a propane fuled Zamboni. The difficulties occured halfway through the first of two races for the men's 500-meter speedskating event. Because of the time stopage, American speedskater Shani Davis withdrew from the event. Eventually, the problems were fixed and medals were awarded. Hopefully, this is the end of the problems that have plagued the Olympic Games thusfar.
Communication is a significant factor when it comes to the 2010 Winter Olympics, which are being held in Vancouver. Not only is it vital to have the communication system up and running successfully with no problems, but to have the adequate amount of technology and equipment to run the system. With tens of thousands of participants using the network, the network has to have large enough capacity to handle the amount of information being transmitted; weather it is being sent or received by phone, email, fax, internet or any other connection. Because of this, VANOC (Communications team) had to work very diligently at creating a system to make sure that this was possible. The only way to ensure that there will be no flaws is to test the system numerous times and to have workers readily available to take on any situation if problems do arise.
The current recession has certainly caused teams to scramble for sponsorship. USA Curling has taken one of the more drastic approaches, by lending its image to a condom manufacturer. The rest of USA Olympics has seen dramatic cutbacks in sponsors. Even though the Vancouver Games were supposed to bring in tons of money, USA Luge sponsor Verizon has cutback funding, DSB Bank- a USA Speedskating partner- has stopped operations, and donations funding USA Bobseld and Biathalon have been reduced to just a trickle of money. However, USA Olympics is optimistic about the next four years.
PR Log (Press Release) - Feb 02, 2010 - From training to broadcasting, Dartfish has been there for the coaches, athletes, and technicians of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. And Dartfish will be on site in Vancouver, BC, providing support to the many teams using Dartfish.tv and software. Because most of the key Olympic teams in several sports are Dartfish users, the Dartfish team will be in Vancouver and Whistler to support and service, as needed.
Although swimming may not be at the centerstage of sports in this country, once every four years, swimming takes the country by storm at the Olympic Games. This past summer Olympics in Beijing, a feat was completed that has never been accomplished in the history of the Olympics. Michael Phelps, a swimmer from Baltimore, won eight gold medals competiting in five individual events, and three relays. The one difference from this Olympics that was like no other was the introduction of new technology in the swim suits that the swimmers were participating in. Speedo has always been at the top of the line for competitive swimwear, and this year was no difference. The LZR Racer was introduced right before the games, and it had a huge impact. Simply put, 94% of the medals were won wearing these new "supersuits," and 23 of 25 world records were broken in the LZR. These are astonishing numbers to try and wrap your head around. Never has a suit been so dominant in the amount of success swimmers get from it. This raises the question, why? The LZR is composed of a light-weight woven fabric, and has polyurethane panels that are strategically placed on certain parts of the suit. Speedo even went to NASA for help, in which they used fluid flow analysis to make the suit as efficient as possible. Studies showed that the suit allowed swimmers to be 5% more efficient with their oxygen intake, which is the most important aspect of swimming. The suit was also the first suit to ever not have seams, with the suit being litterally "lazered" together. With the suit passing all the FINA regulation tests, everything seemed to be fine.
Fast-foward to the 2009 World Championships. Michael Phelps had been caught smoking marijuana in a picture, and he had taken a long break from his sport. In a shocking turn of events, Phelps lost one of his signature races, the 200 free, to a virtually unknown swimmer from Germany named Paul Biedermann. Biedermann smashed Phelps world record in beating Phelps by over a second. Shock ran through the swimming world, as people questioned how this was possible. Phelps coach, Bob Bowman, had an answer. He claimed that Biedermann's suit was basically cheating and enabled him to beat Phelps. What Bowman was talking about was the new line of suits from European companies, most notably Jakked and Arena. Both companies released suits right before world championships that were composed of all polyutherane. Polyutherane is an extremely buoyant material, which many say makes swimmers sit higher in the water, thus making them go faster. After the meet, FINA took action. Their new rules stated that "suits must be made of only "textile fabrics." They can be natural or synthetic yarns that can be weaved, knit or braided to make the suit's material." There are also new buoyancy and absorbency standards, in addition to the fact that males can no longer wear suits that go past the navel or knees, and females can no longer wear suits that go past the shoulders or knees. These new rule changes were extremely important for the sport, and set a lot of companies back. Speedo is still challenging the ruling that the LZR is illegal.
The Nike PreCool Vest was developed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a vest that lowers the body's core temperature. The body's muscles work much more efficient and will perform better in competition when muscles are not dedicating their resources to cooling down the body.
The vest consist
of two layers, the inner layer that is filled with frozen water and the outer
layer that is coated with aluminum to act like a thermos, trapping cold in
while reflecting radiant heat. It is designed to be used about an hour before
competition, and athletes keep it on during their normal warm up and then take
it off right before competition, it can help athletes last up to 21% longer
while competing. But the vest is only available for Olympic athletes, but in
time I am sure it will be available for the average joe.
Michael Phelps is a superstar within the United States and around the world after his unheard of 8 gold medals at the Olympic games. Before he became a superstar along with his swim team years ago they were signed to a promote a protein powder that was new to the market. They were all younger and unknown at the time just like the company. Now that they are all big stars in the world they must still continue to honor their promotion contract with this hardly known company and will be making close to no money off of it. I doubt Phelps really cares that much being now he is making over $50 million in promotions due to the national hero he became after the Olympics. This protein company known as PureSport certainly lucked out, and now may be able to make a name for itself having these celebrity figures endorse its product. This company has the chance to make itself known by riding its endorsement deal on some of the most well known people swimmers in the world.
Baseball's try to get back into the Olympics begins Friday, when Harvey Schiller, International Baseball Federation president, goes to Switzerland, to make a presentation before the International Olympic Committee. Their goal is to stop the embarrassment of the 2005 vote that calls for baseball and softball to be taken out of the Olympics in the 2012 London Games. This vote is due to the lack of MLB players taking partin the olympics do to their season.Six other sports are battling baseball for a spot in the Olympics, including rugby, softball and golf. The committee will most likely pick two sports o
ut of these making 28 total sports. Schiller says that basebal should not be taken out of the olympics because it is a sport that many of our youths are playing and look for role models in it and the fact that Europe is beginning to adapt the sport. he also says that their ar enow up to 40 MLB players participating in the olympics and that he believes he can get more into the next games.
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60534
I am not a strong baseball fan to begin. But after seeing the Olympics in the recent games, i am appaled. I would rather watch mens water polo or a boring track and field event then watch our most beloved sport in our country. I could not recognize one name player in the MLB. I thought that the sport was supposed to portray the best players in your country. This obviously is not true. The Olympics and baseball simply do not mix. Softball, perhaps, but not baseball. Players are too expensive and are deeply rooted in their own teams. Unless the MLB comes to a stand still during the games, no players will go to the Olympics. Its all or nothing so let the vote pass and bring in rugby!
On friday baseball begins it's attempt to enter the olympics as an olympic event. Harvey Schiller who is the International Baseball Federation president, leads a group to Lausanne, Switzerland, to make a presentation infront of the International Olympic Committee's program commission. They are trying to end the embaressment in 2005 of when baseball and softball got taken out of the olympic games. The vote will take place in 2009 and hopefully be able to play in 2016 season.
I really hope that baseball gets reinstated into the olympic games. I dont understand why baseball got taken out of the olympic games when it is americas pastime. The olypmic games need a sport like baseball in the competition. Amateurs use to be on the team but now professional players from the 40 man rosters of major league teams.
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60534
