Who else has been enjoying the Olympics as much as I have? I think I might have developed an unhealthy obsession to the games these past few days with the 800 kajillion hours of NBC coverage.
The opening ceremonies was one of the most beautiful spectacles I’ve ever seen from the man-powered cascading blocks to the cable-suspended Li Ning “running” around the Bird’s Nest to light the torch. It was one jaw-dropping performance after another.
The events have been equally exciting – gymnastics, basketball, and of course, swimming. Even some cycling, fencing, and air rifle every now and then is pretty entertaining.
New York Times Olympic Coverage
The Times has only fed my hunger with great infographics (as well as journalism and photos) covering the games. It began a few days before the start with a history of the torches (above), medal counts by geography and rank, and a schedule:
There’s also been a bit about China’s pollution:
Now that the events are going on in rapid fire mode, the Times has been covering plenty of the goings on. We’re all of course following Michael Phelps’ progress. Here’s a screenshot from a clip discussing one of Phelps’ wins:
With success also comes some falls:
Let’s not forget the maps:
Great job, New York Times. I’m looking forward to the giant feature graphic on Michael Phelps when he wins 8 gold medals. Oh yes – he will. I dare you to disagree.
Looking forward to seeing Jason Dunford take him out in the 100m Butterfly.
and the smack talk begins. we will see.
Hi Nathan, do you know what was used for the nytimes graphics? Are they made using flash?
yeah, the interactive ones are flash/actionscript. the static graphics are in illustrator. the tell-tale sign is when you right click on the graphic and it shows adobe.
8 gold medals for phelps!!
Saying that this is quite an achievement is obviously an understatement. This is a huge accomplishment that is the culmination of years of work.
You’ll note that upon clicking the far left torch, then the far right torch, then the far left torch again, you’ll get a little surprise. After it does its thing, click any of the torches again…
It amazes me that they also built in an easter egg.
william – whoa. nice! thanks for pointing that out. how’d you come across that one?
Nathan — Haha, I definitely didn’t find it by playing with it — another friend of mine pointed it out and someone told him. The lot of us are all in journalism though, and know some folks on their staff, so it likely came down from them.