Get close to Olympic action with technology

If you haven’t booked your ticket to London for the Olympic Games, you don’t have to worry about missing out on the action.

Mobile applications, a Youtube channel and a social media platform will ensure that you stay up to date with the sporting spectacle that begins on Friday.

Atos, the official information technology (IT) partner of the International Olympic Committee, is supporting a mobile application to give global audience an intimate experience of the Games, by harnessing the 3G technology boom and the potential offered by smart phones and tablet computers.

“We have introduced an efficient information diffusion system that can give users updates about any event, with a response time of three seconds,” said Milind Kamat, CEO, Atos India.

The application, called London 2012 Results App, will give users updated schedules and real-time results of all the sporting events at the games. Users can also customise their updates by choosing the sports or the national teams that they want to follow through the Games.

Athlete biographies are also updated on this application along with regular medal alerts.

For the first time, the Olympic Games have been integrated with social media to create an online community for athletes and fans. The Olympics Athletes’ Hub is a social media forum that will help athletes stay in direct contact with millions of fans across the world through Twitter or Facebook.

You can also catch all the live action on the official Olympic channel on YouTube or add the official website www.olympic.org to your circle on your Google+ account to receive updates.

Sports enthusiasts are delighted about the range of avenues. “During the previous Games, I would often miss out on watching my favourite sports such as boxing and archery since I was not aware of the proper schedules,” said Taran Khetawat, 23, a Goregaon resident who has downloaded the mobile application on his Android phone.

“Now I can easily keep a tab on the Indian athletes participating in these sports,” he added.