IOC Opens Winter Games to Net Journalists

Mar 01 2001

The International Olympic Committee has knocked down a major hurdle: It has granted press credentials to Internet journalists for the 2002 Winter Games.

Sports sites complained vehemently last summer when they learned that of the more than 22,000 press credentials that were distributed for the Sydney Summer Games, none went to Internet journalists. The IOC and leaders of the media community gathered in Switzerland last December to address press access, among other thorny rights issues, for these sites for future Games.

Shortly after the December summit, the IOC decided to open up the Winter Games in Salt Lake City next February to Internet journalists. Demand for press access to the Winter Olympics has historically been much lower than the Summer Games.

The IOC made the decision to grant the press credentials Wednesday. According to David Aikman, a member of the IOC's Internet task force, the organization has accredited 15 sports sites, including Sportal Network and Sports.com in the U.K. and Sport24.com in France. In the U.S., Yahoo Sports got the nod. Aikman said sports sites in Germany and Estonia were also included, as were sites "on all continents."

He added that the organization wanted to grant access to those sites that could not otherwise attend the Games. A number of dot-com journalists, including those from CNNSI.com and ESPN.com, simply used the credentials allotted to their parent companies to get into the venues and report on the action.

Stephen Nuttall, head of sport at the Sportal Network, called it a vindicating move. "It's nice to be given this honor," he said. "There is a need, clearly, to be at events to get best quality coverage."

Still, Aikman was disappointed by the number of sites that applied for credentials. Just 28 sites filled out the application for the 2002 Games. After all of the protests last summer, he said, the low turnout "was surprising to us."