Blogging has become a key(board) outlet for some at the Games

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 16, 2008 at 10:19 a.m.

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David Oliver has a decent shot at a medal. But the American hurdler is still acting like a fan at the Olympics.

This week, Oliver went to a U.S. women's basketball game, and seated in the stands were members of the U.S. men's team. Oliver got out his camera and snapped away.

How do we know this?

The Denver East High School graduate wrote on his blog about seeing the players. He even posted a photo of Kobe Bryant, with his nickname, "Black Mamba," underneath.

"Where else do you have stars like that just sitting in the stands?" an impressed Oliver said. "They're usually sitting in skyboxes or VIP seats."

And where else can you look up from your meal and see Spain's two most well-known athletes?

"I had to eat in the dining hall of the (Olympic) village, and it's crazy," Oliver wrote in his blog. "You sit down at a table, and you have Rafael Nadal and Pau Gasol on one end across from you."

If you want regular updates on Oliver's Olympic doings, visit Web site

davidoliverhurdles.blogspot.com. He's one of numerous athletes at the Games who are blogging away.

A U.S. Olympic Committee official estimated that, of the nearly 600 athletes on the U.S. team, perhaps about 100 are blogging in some form.

While this had been going on before, it was only this year that the International Olympic Committee tackled the issue and technically made blogging by athletes legal during the Games. The IOC put out a 1,200-word set of blogging guidelines.

In a nutshell, the IOC doesn't want athletes to act as journalists or to step on the toes of sponsors in their blogs, from eight days before the Opening Ceremonies to three days afterward. The rules are posted all over the athletes' village.

Rules include athletes not being able to post pictures that contain sporting action of the Games or the opening, closing or medal ceremonies. And no more than 15 percent of a blog page can be related to advertising or to a sponsor.

But what about editorial content? After all, the Olympics are being staged in China, a nation that doesn't have a free press.

The blogging rules make no mention of restricting opinions that athletes might make. And chief communications officer Darryl Siebel said the USOC has issued no specific restrictions or warnings to U.S. athletes.

"We have not, and will not, introduce guidelines that are any more restrictive than what the IOC guidelines for blogging are," Siebel said.

Siebel made note of Rule 51 of the IOC's Olympic Charter, which long has been in place and potentially could come into play regarding a blog. The rule reads, in part, that "political, religious or racial propaganda" demonstrations aren't allowed at Olympic sites.

Some athletes, though, are taking into consideration the Games are in China and are being more careful.

"I know not to offend," said Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, blogging for The New York Times. "I don't want to offend no country like this."

Anthony noted on his blog that he and his U.S. teammates "got bum-rushed going into the (Olympic) village," but one would think no offense was taken by the Chinese. And one would think it didn't bother the locals that U.S. fencer Seth Kelsey, about a visit to Beijing's Summer Palace, wrote about "the annoying cicadas (why must ye be so loud)."

Along with Oliver, Kelsey is one of about 100 international Olympic athletes recruited to write blogs from the Games for the computer company Le- novo (lenovoblogs.com). Oliver has had a blog since April 2007, which Lenovo picks up, and Kelsey was recruited by Lenovo last May for its Voices of the Olympic Games.

"I try to post something every day," said Kelsey, an Air Force Academy graduate and Colorado Springs resident who finished Olympic competition Sunday but has been updating readers on his tourist ventures in Beijing at bracethyself.blogspot.com.

"I'm getting about 50 hits a day. There's even a guy from Iran who has been posting messages."

Oliver, who put close-up photos of his track shoes on a recent blog for die- hard fans, said he gets about 500 hits a day. He has had hits from nations such as Qatar and Kazakhstan.

All the Lenovo athletes are given computers. They've also been hooked up with such goodies as camcorders and digital cameras.

Also involved with Lenovo is Jennifer Nichols, an archer from Cheyenne. While many Olympic blogs are light- hearted, the deeply religious Nichols takes a spiritual approach, titling one blog at psalms-girl.blogspot.com, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord."

"I am very outspoken about my faith," Nichols said. "I am in no way trying to proselytize, and I'm not trying to convert anyone while I'm here. I am here merely as a Christian athlete, and I'm here to perform my best and be an example."

For now, Nichols is doing that through printed form. But who knows what the future might hold?

U.S. women's basketball player Lisa Leslie is doing a video blog for The Associated Press, regularly talking into a camera on her computer. She wonders what technology will lead athletes to be doing down the road.

"In a minute, they'll have cameras in their teeth," she said. "The future is amazing."

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