Stories about: Olympic Technology

Microsoft's newest OS, Vista, has been relegated to waterboy status at the 2008 Olympic Games, while wireless networking won't even play a supporting role in Beijing.

A barefoot marathon runner and a 5cm-too-short gymnastics vault are not the sort of problems you'd expect the official Olympic Games technology provider, IBM, to encounter. But according to Vickie Regan, vice president, IBM Sydney 2000 Olympics Technology, it's exactly those problems that kept IBM and its 6000-strong team busy during the Sydney Games.

Hoping its technology implementations encounter smoother sailing than its political dealings with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), IBM is putting the finishing touches on the mammoth IT operation that will support this month's Summer Olympics in Sydney

From tonight, September 15, 2000,10,200 athletes, 5100 officials, 15,000 media representatives and millions of spectators will descend on Sydney for the most anticipated and watched sporting event of the world.

As IBM gears up for its technology marathon at the Sydney games, it will draw on lessons learnt since it first wired the games -- at the 1960 Winter Olympics, held at Squaw Valley, California.