LAUSANNE, November 13, 2013 - New media is increasingly becoming a part of communication in the world of sport. The latest application to add to this field was developed by the International Olympic Committee is called "Olympic Athletes' Hub".
To coincide with the 100-day countdown until the start of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, this new app brings a searchable directory of the social media activities of Olympic athletes to mobile devices for the first time.
"In addition to providing aggregates of Olympians’ Facebook and Twitter feeds on one easy-to-use platform, the Hub also offers the content athletes publish on Instagram, the online photo- and video-sharing social networking site,” according to the IOC media office.
“Olympic fans can connect with the Olympians and join the fun via mobile devices, the web and smart phones. Athletes themselves can now text each other and the IOC directly, and vice versa."
For us, the sports journalist, this new technological support makes for a brilliant tool in the first part of our work, researching stories – since beside the official press conferences, day-by-day it is becoming more important to find the curious, personal side of an athlete.
"The Olympic Athletes’ Hub” makes it possible to have all of your fields of interest channeled in one single tool: using the Hub’s search function you can effortlessly locate athletes by country, team, sport or edition of the Games.
Over 5,000 verified Olympians have already joined the Hub and, following the previews of the IOC Media Office, the number will continue to grow as the countdown to Sochi 2014 continues and word of the Hub spreads.
From the athletes’ point of view, the new IOC invention will be able to make communication with fans faster and easier: “The new app and updates unveiled are the latest example of the IOC’s continued efforts to connect athletes with their fans,” said Olympic fencing silver medalist, and current chairperson of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, Claudia Bokel.
“The Hub is a great tool for us athletes to interact with the public and even amongst ourselves. The new additions make it even easier for us to communicate in fun, innovative ways.”
For "popular" stories, for example, how an Olympic athlete is going to celebrate Halloween, you can search for pictures in the section titled, "Olympians on Instagram".
In the same way, in entering a section called “Olympian Feed” you can have all of the tweets of the athletes you are interested in gathered together.
The engineers behind the app have also thought of a "game" – clearly more for the fans than the sports journalists – giving users the possibility to unlock secret training tips from Olympic greats after collecting points when clicking "like on Facebook” or “follow on Twitter” through the site.
These points will give them prizes such as virtual gold, silver and bronze medals from past Olympic Games in the process, and many other prizes will also be awarded on the road to Sochi 2014.
Fans can also find coverage of the Games through the IOC’s rights-holding broadcasting from a special section of the app.
“Since its launch in April 2012, the Olympic Athletes’ Hub has been the place to go online for direct and intimate access to Olympians past and present,” said the IOC Media Office. “Getting better acquainted with Olympic athletes has never been easier.”
You can download the Olympic Athletes’ Hub app at the Google Play Store (http://bit.ly/Hr95MK) or iTunes App Store (http://bit.ly/Hm2TGv). The app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, but can also be downloaded on other devices, like the Samsung Galaxy NX.
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