men's K1 kayak - bronze

The Kookaburras defeated Germany in the men's hockey (3-2) for a bronze medal.

Michelle Timms was the star of the contest between the Opals (Australia's women's basketball team) and the USA team to win the right to the gold medal game against Brazil. The Australians were proud of their game, keeping in touch with the USA, finally losing 93-71. The Opals finished the first half against the USA 15 points down 47-32.

The "Woodies" win the men's doubles competition in tennis for a gold medal. (6-4, 6-4, 6-2, over Great Britain)

HockeyRoos are champions! Gold in womens' hockey over South Korea.

The Australian Women's Basketball team took control of time on to beat the Russian team by four points. The Opals' are now into the semi-finals against the USA. (Australia v. Russia 74-70)
Kathy Freeman (silver, 400 m)
Yachting (silver)

Brad McGee (bronze, cycling)
Silver in Swimming! (women's relay)
Equestrian Team (gold, three day event)
Russell Mark from Werribee, Vic (gold, shooting)
Desiree Huddleston from Mildura, Vic (bronze, shooting)
Michael Diamond (gold, shooting)
Daniel Kowalski, 22y.o. from Melbourne (bronze, 200 m freestyle, and 400 m freestyle)
Samantha Riley (bronze, 100m breastroke)
Scott Goodman (bronze, 200 m butterfly)

Amnesty International Australia, Victorian Branch are raising the issue of the death penalty during the Olympics

From July 19 to August 4, the world has a chance once again to absorb itself in the international sporting experience that is the Olympic Games. This year the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games is at Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Yes, yo u guessed it the Atlanta Games is well and truly "on the net". I'm calling it the @lantics.

The Official 1996 Olympic Web Site is the place to find all the facts and figures on the Games. The most useful pre-Games information are the details for each event. Each event is listed with the requirements for each country entering. The qualification standards are included there in case you wanted to test yourself against them! During the games, the site will come alive with "real time updates directly from the IBM Systems th an run the Games". Don't forget the Paralympics too.

Every page comes with a footer navigation bar ... if you get lost choose the index option. The pages don't load really fast, so a suggestion may be to bookmark the sports you are interested in and then go and check them during the Games. There are all sorts of multimedia files available for the plug-in junkies: movies (.avi), and audio (.au, .wav). Theres a feedback form and several FAQs. A neat feature, the Olympic Factoid, is a little colourful triva note at the bottom of each page.

I wonder if there's a gold medal for the most popular Atlantic Games web page? The commercial sites are competing with the official page, and they're in there with a chance. I've included three in the bookmarks - check them out for yourself! They all have a countdown to the start of the Games ... but NBC wins in the countdown category by including th e seconds remaining.

Izzy is the little colourful muppet type creature assuming the role of Official Olympic Mascot. He has his own cartoon show and sales of fluffy "Izzy"s are going through the roof over in the US. I checked out the official Olympic merchandise page, trying to order my very own Izzy. I couldnt find him. Maybe you can? You might be interested in the Official baseball cap available in four styles from US$15 to US$24. Thes e can be ordered online with your credit card. Enter your email address to determine the cost of postage. The Australian Olympic Team sponsor is also offering a cap for A$12.50. I've heard a rumour th at you could pick up a cap from the local Scottish Restaurant for a lot less.

When planning your Olympic Games web browsing consider the fact that the already slow links are going to be in very high demand during the actual Games themselves. However you could catch up with the events that you missed on TV. Why not use the web information to become a 1996 Games expert in the lead up time?

For Australian information, try the Australian Sports Commission's Olympic Site which has an excellent list of links. I'm trying to find information on Australian athletes, without much success! There's Scott Logan's swimming page, Scott is a member of the Australian Team. Don't forget what's just around the corner: the Sydney 20 00 Games.

The Official Sites

Official 1996 Olympic Web Site - 1996 Olympic Games Home Page
http://www.atlanta.olympic.org/

The 1996 Paralympic Games
http://www9.bonsai.com/atlanta/

Olympic Merchandising Catalog
http://mer.shop.ibm.com/shopping/olympic/

WomenSports Olympics Site

http://www.womensports.com/olympics/

Commerical Atlanta Games Sites

1. very similar to the official site
http://www.atlantagames.com/

2. different layout and approach
http://www.olympic.att.com/

3. The NBC Site
http://www.olympic.nbc.com/

Australia

Australia Post: the official carrier of electronic mail to the Australian Team
http://www.auspost.com.au/olympic/

Inside Atlanta
http://www.olympics.ni.com.au

Win a modem
http://www.banksia.com.au/news/whatsnew/comp.html

Australian Sports Commission's Olympic Site
http://www.ausport.gov.au/olymenu.html

Australian Olympic Team sponsor's page
http://www.telstra.com.au/olympics96/

Scott Logan's Swimming in Australia page
http://www.gil.com.au/~logan/index.html

Sydney 2000
http://www.sydney.olympic.org/