I am a Olympics junkie. For the past twenty years or so, I have been an interested devotee of the games and for most of the events no obscure it may be.

It has been quite a change from how I track the games events and results from 1988 to 2008. Back then, I was reliant upon whatever the CBC/CTV or the American networks carried on their braodcast which usually was just snippets of clips and focus on whatever the stars were for the event. If I was lucky, I could read about other events and see the stats for the events in the paper even if I knew the results well ahead of time.

Over the years, as computers and the Internet became more prevalent in our lives, I found it was easier to catch up with the results. In the late 90’s, the websites associated with the Olympic games or the network sites would have some stories posted along with the results. Not in real-time but usually ahead of what was printed in the paper the next day.

By this time, the games were seen as rating gold especially for NBC, and we start seeing more around the clock coverage allowing the viewers to see more sports even if was just the gold medal final.

By the 2000 Olympics, I had become throughly immersed in the Olympics as the games progressed checking on the results with a relentless spirt. With faster Internet speeds, seeing video whether live or even just highlight clips became a useful tool.

Now, in 2008, what do I have access to?

Well, in the United States, courtesy of the fact that I have HD Cable, I have access to a slew of NBC affliated channels that are broadcasting in HD. A whole section of the band has been reserved just for the games: USA HD, Universal HD, CNBC HD, a NBC Basketball and NBC Soccer channels, MSNBC, Oxygen and the NBC parent channel. Weekdays can have three or four channels broadcasting simultanoeusly though in the evenings, all other channels are essentially off line giving the NBC channel the best events coverage. It is essentially 24 hours around the clock because of the 12 hour delay between China and the United States east coast. So I was given the pleasure of seeing Canada’s men eights in rowing win their event live at 2:30 in the morning.

All in all, I am pleased with my choices in television.

I can not say the same for the websites.

I know that the standard for websites seem to rising higher and higher. Something like the Olympics demands high quality video for the best experience and there is no shortage of videos on the site. One feature I like is the live feeds of the less popular events that would not get much television time like fencing. It is straight up feed from the broadcast network with no voice commentary which could be a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective.

The main problem I have with the NBC website is that the page is incredibly cluttered with links to everything. It is difficult to determine what you want to go to. The special bio feature, the latest results, the video of the hour? Everything seems to have the same weight. It is like the web designers took the metric of having information no deeper than three clicks too literally.

But for me, I totally ignore almost all of it. With the exception of aforementioned live video feeds, what drives me to Olympic sites are the results page. Getting complete results as quickly as they occur is the gold standard for me. In that regard, I would give the site a C grade. When it comes to the prestige sports like swimming, results are posted quickly and complete. But for other sports, results lag considerably.

There is also for me the issue of the competitor listings. For example, I have been trying to follow the progress of the fencing matches. The matchups start with a group of 64 and eventually whittles down to the gold medal final. The problem is that the matchups do not show up until the matches have well past finished. There is also a feature found in other draw sports like badminton which shows the matchups in a graphical fashion. This feature has yet to work at all as far as I can tell. Sometimes it will show the intitial pairings but after that nothing but a blank layout.

On the CBC website, I was disappointed in the quality of the site. I guess for year 2000, it would be considered cutting edge but now it is just very basic. Links to articles and news pieces essentially. Results are even worst than NBC’s as they lag quite a bit after the event and not really organised well. Another issue is on the contender sections for the various sports, the link goes to an overview of one event with no links to others. No so good. On the other hand, the layout is not quite as cluttered as NBC’s but as a public broadcaster, the CBC is less pressured by commerical concerns.

Still, in spite of the various sites deficiencies, I still hit these sites pretty hard during my waking hours. Staying on top of the events as they occur and seeing how Canada does during these games pretty much drives me these days.