Excite's Best Picks for Following the Atlanta Summer Games

By Gian Trotta, Excite Editorial Manager

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An Olympiad is as much about a city as the competitions; this site covers both Atlanta and the athletes like a wrestler's singlet -- all-encompassing yet revealing. It grapples with the South's past and present, from the Civil War to civil rights. The news stories and columns (try the good search function) show just the right blend of boosterism, skepticism and journalism: They admit Atlanta is "New York in reverse -- a nice place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit for long." To this end, they give you an exhaustive city guide. The Kids Page irreverently notes that the ancient athletes performed naked, and the Atlanta Guide nightlife guide covers (or uncovers) everything from from nude clubs to the The Top 10 Sites You Have to See and a Personal Safety guide. On the interactive front, you can read Atlantans' rants and raves, get a European View of the Games and enjoy a global-village milieu on the busy international bulletin boards.

SI Online

They're automated (providing up-to-the-minute results), prescient (picking all medalists in advance) and opinionated (with columns on every subject under the Georgia sun; our favorite was Athens' dismay at not getting the centennial games), creative (a mythical interview with the 133-year old Baron de Coubertin had us reeling; nostalgic (with a great section on past Olympics) and incisive (the "host city" section captures the attitude, arts and angst of the New South). And as SI has always been, excellent and comprehensive. Special bonus: a link to the Olympic section of cadet publication Sports Illustrated for Kids and features such as Match the Flags and "Could You Make the Olympics?" section.

NBC's Official Olympic site

Who said TV was a one-way medium? A full roster of breaking news, schedules and athlete profiles are complemented by daily live chats with Olympic newsmakers and an interactive interview section lets users describe their favorite moments and submit questions to be used in interviews. Athlete profiles are excellent -- powerlifter Wes Barnett describes his recent U.S. record 479 1/2-pound lift and gymnast Dominique Dawes quotes poetry. Veteran Olympic correspondent Bud Greenspan gives his 100 Greatest Olympic Moments (Bob Beamon's record long jump and Shun Fujimoto's broken-legged grit top the list). On a lighter note, see the Mascots Section.

Other Olympic Sites...

LET YOUR GAMES BEGIN:

AT&T's Online Olympics let you compete in diving, pole vaulting, basketball and hurdles -- and lets you post your score against the rest of the world, while the Olympic Switchboard, which will e-mail specified event news to more sedentary types. There's the almost obligatory Olympic Village web cam, but one of the 24 athlete profiles gives a better glimpse into the Olympian mind: "After competing in Barcelona, I now understand the stories about the athletes who mortgaged their homes to compete in one more Olympics," U.S. water-polo team member Alex Roussau writes.

AN OLYMPIC PRIMER

No ads, no fancy graphics, just gray background and great text; this site is to Olympic web sites what the 1896 Games are to the Centennial edition. But the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles' plain-text histories of ancient and modern games, and succint summaries of current phenomenoms like television, doping, and commercialism. Whatever your connect speed, you can become an Olympic expert in less time than it takes Carl Lewis to run the 200 meters.

RAVES FOR DAVE!

Dave Roselle, a Network Planner for AT&T in Atlanta, has cobbled together a peach of a site called "It's Atlanta!" that matches up with the big boys' sites -- and when was the last time they cooked up as tasty a mishmash as "All Things Olympic" and Vidalia onions online?

NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY:

WomenSports takes a gender-specific look at the Olympics, with good historical information. Also check out NationBank's electronic postcard site. They're quite handsome, easy, and free to boot. And the history site is not bad for such a commercial institution. Of course, even though the postcard needs no stamp, you can buy official Olympic coins.

FASTER, HIGHER, FARTHER...

The Official 1996 Olympic Web Site Real-time updates, commentaries, photos and videos from the games extracted directly from the IBM servers running the Games ... The multiformated sound and video files and the The Olympic Stadium 3-D view that will show you the best seat even if you weren't lucky enough to buy it ... General Motors' Tune-In Guide from GM's tight but effective Olympic site that, like AT&T, will deliver fresh results to your e-mail doorstep each day... What's an Olympics without pin trading? Every Olympic reporter must file a pin-trading story, so stick it to Pindemon's page to view the cutting edge in lapel appeal ...
Click here.
Click here.

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