VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The best website for up-to-the-second information on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games is Info 2010. Unfortunately, very few people have access to it, as its a service for the media.
Info 2010 is available on the intranet serving all the Olympic venues and media centers. Access to the network, wired and wireless, isn't free -- my 14-day account cost $230 Canadian.
If you've ever wondered how announcers have so many stats at their fingertips, this is a big reason why. The site has schedules and results for all events, updated constantly. The results are fed into the system via the official scorers and timekeepers.
Generally, this raw score information will find its way to the public sites fairly quickly, so there's not a huge advantage to having access to it at the games. However, Info 2010 offers much more.
The Olympic News Service employs more than 200 reporters, both paid and volunteer, to gather information at all the venues, according to Riccardo Patti of the ONS. Many of the reporters gather "flash quotes" at the site, recording what competitors say in the media mixed zones and rushing it online.
As an example, suppose I was writing about the women's curling session this morning. On Info 2010, I see quotes from 11 different participants, along with a rundown on tickets sold. Full stats are available. I can see Allison Pottinger and Debbie McCormick had a rough day -- 61 and 64 percent -- as U.S. fourth and third vs. China. If I wanted a quote, here's one by McCormick from the flash quotes: "I can't put my finger on what happened. Sometimes you lose your confidence."
I'm guessing that there is someone in the Main Media Centre here that has covered the entire games from there, using Info 2010 and a glut of raw TV feeds.
Multiply this by all the events in the games and you can get an idea of how rich the content is. Too bad not everyone can see it.
