NEW YORK — Two people in a recording booth deep inside a Connecticut office park are helping millions of blind Americans feel part of the Olympics like never before. For the first time in the U.S., NBC is airing the Olympics in prime time with additional narrators who simply report what’s happening on screen — [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — If you want to glimpse the future of sports broadcasting, you can check out the Rio Olympics in virtual reality. But if you really want to immerse yourself in the competition, just turn on the TV. NBC, BBC and other Olympic networks around the world are offering the opening and closing [...]
NEW YORK — The Olympics are full of stories of underdogs triumphing against the odds for athletic glory. But in the case of Olympic marketing, smaller brands are finding it tough to prevail amid strict rules. Sponsors such as Visa, Samsung and Coca-Cola pay hundreds of millions of dollars to be associated with the Olympics. [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — When seconds count, the right clothing matters. For the Rio Olympics, Nike used 3-D printing technology to develop small silicone protrusions for redirecting air flow around the runner. Body scanners helped Adidas design suits to keep swimmers in ideal form. Swiss cycling specialist Assos turned to wind tunnels to craft custom, [...]
Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte will be busy in the pool at the Rio Olympics. Just not as busy as they wanted to be. The two popular stars from the U.S. swimming team four years ago in London have just three individual events between them in Rio, hardly the frenetic schedule they’ve grown accustomed to [...]
Robert Shannon was known as a big banger at 119 pounds, good with his gloves and handy enough with scissors that he did his teammates hair. He still cuts hair in the Seattle area, but now is known more as the answer to a trivia question about the 1984 U.S. Olympic boxing team. “The only [...]
RIO DE JANEIRO — Copacabana Beach is an Olympic construction site. The beach volleyball venue is going up, broadcast studios rise on scaffolding above the sand and a mammoth tent is jammed with thousands of pricey souvenirs. But there are few signs across town in crumbling, working-class areas that the Rio de Janeiro Olympics open [...]