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Net Gains (Jul 17, 96)
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The Official Web Site of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games has been on the Net for quite some time now, keeping a countdown of the days to the games while at the same time tracing the 15,000 mile trek of the Olympic Torch Relay across the US of America. The link to the page tracing the relay has snapshots of the torch being proudly carried around the place right from day one to the 84th day of the flame day. At this page, you can see past snapshots of any particular day, or drop in on the state celebrations as the olympic torch passes through. This page also has a facility for surfers to get a list of torchbearers from their state - but these are just links to empty pages, so don't waste any time here.
The welcome page has audio and video clips of Bill Payne, President and CEO of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) welcoming net - visitors to the 1996 Olympic Games. Once here, you also have a choice of getting to know trivia about these games - like the 3,700 women participating are a 32 % increase from the number of women athletes in Barcelona in 1992, the expected visitors number two million (a lot of tourism moolah !!) , and two - thirds of the world's population is expected to watch the television coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games. Oh yeah, a grand total of 1,933 gold, silver, and bronze medals are being competed for, in 26 different sports. The ubiquitious FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sheet is also present, covering accommodations, the official mascot, official products, the Olympic village, the Olympic sports, the Olympic tickets, the Olympic this, and the Olympic that ... Ending the welcome is a link to a site that will be really, really, really hot at the turn of the century - the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games site - a site once again bagged by IBM.
Back at the home page, there's an option of buying tickets. In case you're still interested in getting a ticket to one of the games, go straiht to the catagory that takes care of tickets outside of the US of A. Choosing India from among the countries listed, you'll get the Indian Olympic Association address in New Delhi where you can get your tickets from. Sadly enough, we Indians apparently can't order tickets via the Internet unless we have an address in the U.S. where the tickets can be delivered to (but that shouldn't really be a problem, what will all those NRI relatives somewhere in the heart of the US !)
The home page also has a fun - side link, focussing mainly on IZZY the mascot, and trivia quizzes, stories about IZZY, and even a short IZZY animation film.
There's the Travel Information section, Schedules, and Sports & Venues sections packed with a helluva lot of information. The Schedules have been arranged by sport, by date, and by location, with 3 search engines making your search child's play (even if you're a child !). The Schedules page is the most user friendly, and the most useful page on this site, so make sure you drop in here.
Thanks to the Net, you don't need to have a relative at Atlanta to get back some official merchandise to help you show off. Right there, on the home page there is a link to merchandise available for sale - caps, shirts, outerwear, pins and other promotional items bearing the colours, symbols, and images of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. There's an online order form, to help you order the stuff right here from your keyboard and your credit card.
One fascinating feature on all pages on this web site is the presence of factoids on each page that are displayed randomly. These factoids are basically tid - bits about the 1996 Olympics - for instance 2,500 baseballs will be used for training and competition, or that the Olympic Cauldron weighs 72 tons, and that 10,000 torch - bearers were responsible for carrying the Olympic flame !
If you don't visit this page now, you're gonna have to wait another four years to catch the fever on the Web. As one big company says - "Just do it."