100 Days

The countdown until the London Olympics has finally dropped below triple digits.  The Games are a little more than three months away, and there were a number of "100 Days" celebrations throughout the day on Wednesday.  Among the festivities were a massive event in Times Square featuring past and current Olympians, as well as the relaunch of one of my favorite websites, nbcolympics.com. 

Along with relaunching the website, NBC announced how it's going to handle this whole live streaming every event thing.  I think they've found an appropriate solution regarding live streaming of the events that are featured on the primetime TV coverage.  They'll show those events live online, but won't make them available on-demand until after they air on TV.  This way, you make the "why don't you show everything live?" people happy while still preserving the integrity of the TV broadcast.  For the events that aren't featured on NBC's primetime coverage, they'll be archived and on-demand pretty much immediately.  They've announced that they're going to stream more than 3,500 total hours, including all 302 medal finals.

They're also going to do something that I think is very cool.  They're going to have simultaneous streams from the same venue.  If you want to watch gymnastics, you can watch regular coverage that bounces around from apparatus to apparatus, or you can watch just the balance beam or just the floor exercise.  Same thing with track & field.  If you're a shot put fan, you can watch the entire shot put competition instead of just the snippets they show in between the track races.  As a fan of the sport, I figure I'll probably be watching the event-by-event track & field stream a lot during the Olympics.  They're going to do the same thing with tennis, which has been done at the four Grand Slams for years.

At the Times Square event, the USOC launched its own initiative--the "Raise Our Flag" campaign.  This is really cool.  Basically, the USOC is asking for $12 donations to contribute stitches to an American flag that's currently being made at Annin Flagmakers in New Jersey.  Fans can watch video of the flag being sewn on the USOC website, and it's supposed to be done by July 13, just in time for the Opening Ceremony.  This is the American flag that will lead the U.S. team into the stadium on July 27, and it may be used in medals ceremonies, as well. 

This is a very creative and unique way to make the average American feel like they're making a difference.  The USOC doesn't receive any government funding, meaning it relies entirely on sponsorships and donations.  Not only is this a great fundraiser, it can also be a great sense of pride.  And something to take ownership in.  How cool will it be to see that flag flying in London and know that you made a contribution (even a small one) to the greatest Olympic team in the world?

Speaking of the greatest Olympic team in the world, how's qualifying looking with little more than three months to go?  Most of the individual sports are nowhere near deciding places on the Olympic team.  In fact, the swimming, track, diving and gymnastics Olympic Trials are all at the same time in late June/early July.  These sports haven't even started their international professional seasons, so it'll be a while until we know who's on the U.S. Olympic team in the Big Four.  I wouldn't recommend missing the Olympic Trials, though.  Especially in swimming and track.  As usual, there are going to be events where Americans that are capable of winning an Olympic medal don't even make the team.  Especially with only two spots per event on the line in swimming and three in track, the finals at Olympic Trials could be more competitive than the Olympic finals.

As for the team sports, qualifying takes on various forms.  Both the men's and women's basketball teams don't have to worry about qualifying.  They automatically clinched Olympic berths by winning the 2010 World Championship.  The U.S. women's soccer team won the North/Central American qualifying tournament in Vancouver in January, while the men's team didn't make it.  The men's volleyball qualifying tournament is in a couple weeks in Long Beach, Calif., while the U.S. women made the Olympics by finishing second in the World Cup last year.  Both water polo teams qualified by winning the 2011 Pan Am Games, as did the women's field hockey squad.  They changed the qualifying process in beach volleyball, but rest assured, Kerri and Misty will be in London.  (And even though they aren't required to anymore, they will be wearing bikinis.)

The Joelympics blogs will become more and more prominent as the Games continue to draw closer.  Olympic fever is starting to take hold.  Catch it.