Live coverage of US Olympic men’s marathon team trials
26 April 2000 - Members of the media and fans alike will be able to follow the progress of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials Men’s Marathon in Pittsburgh on May 7th anywhere in the world via the Internet, and on television in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
Both NBCOlympics.com, a partnership between NBC Sports and Quokka Sports, and Runner’s World On-Line, operated by the world’s largest running magazine which bears the same name, will feature special live coverage on their World Wide Web sites.
"NBCOlympics.com will begin its coverage of the Trials on May 4th," said Noah Scheinmann, a producer with NBCOlympics.com. "The immersive Internet coverage will give users an opportunity to navigate through the Pittsburgh course map, meet some of the favourites, hear from some of the hopefuls, discover some facts about the marathon, and experience what it is like to run 26.2 miles. "Then on race day, we will have live race updates from start to finish so you can follow the runners as they try to earn a berth to Sydney."
NBCOlympics also plans a live 30-minute chat with the race winner shortly after the race and invites the public to participate. The Internet address is http://www.nbcolympics.com.
The coverage at Runner’s World On-Line will also be extensive. "Our live coverage will be a text description of how the race develops, updated about every five minutes," said Parker Morse, the Runner’s World webmaster. "The pages will be set to refresh regularly, so once at the page, readers’ browsers will get the most recent updates automatically. Our race coverage focuses on the leaders and the chase packs, giving splits where available, updating readers on changes in the pace, the lead, and the runners in contention. We will attempt to post pictures of the race in progress as conditions allow."
Post-race coverage will include numerous photographs and discussions with each of the top finishers as well as other stories and complete results. The Internet address is http://www.runnersworld.com/road2sydney/mens_trials/.
For those living in the Greater Pittsburgh area, live television coverage will be available on WPXI-TV Channel 11, beginning at 7:30 a.m. Coverage will switch to PCNC on cable at 11:30 and continue for an additional hour. The broadcast will be hosted by Sam Nover, who will be joined by expert marathon analysts, Marty Liquori and Kathrine Switzer.
Taped coverage of the race can be seen nation-wide on PAX-TV, as part of their unprecedented 38 hours of U.S. Olympic Team Trials coverage. The two hour show will air on Monday, June 24th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. PAX-TV, owned and operated by Paxon Communications Corp., is available in 77% of U.S. households.
