| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
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Nerve center pumps out results
Jed Boal
KSL-TV
In all of the excitement of the competition, you may have overlooked the fact that you get race results faster than ever before.
Actually, you see results in real time along with commentators, coaches and the athletes themselves.
Welcome to the digital city that runs the games. It's staffed 24 hours a day.
SchlumbergerSema is the company leading a technology consortium of 15 tech giants to get results to the media, the athletes and your home computer as fast as possible. The volume of information is staggering.
The data can be dissected and sorted any way possible, faster than lightening speed.
The company's CEO, Irwin Pfister, says, "We're using technology that pushes information out to the user in real time, simultaneous to the event itself."
For example, the commentators and the spectators know how fast Derek Parra is skating and the size of his lead as it's happening.
The volume, variety and speed of info is unparralled in Olympic history.
Feedback has been positive, from media to spectators. It's state of the art, but the company wasn't taking any risks.
Pfister says, "We're using proven technology and how it's unique is how we lace it all together so that it's flexible and operates in real time."
But the company isn't only crunching all of that information for you, the spectator, the commentators and the athletes. They're also taking acre of games management — everything from accreditation for athletes, to putting together schedules so they get to their events on time.
While the results are the most important aspect, the foundation is the technological support behind the games.
SchlumbergerSema has the information technology contract on Summer and Winter Games through 2008.
IBM handled the job for 40 years.
In the games ahead, look for smart cards coded with your tickets for events, more wireless technology and more on the internet.
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February 21, 2002
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