iPods and the Olympics
Like many, I’ve been watching a fair amount of Olympic coverage these days and throughout, I’ve been amazed at the number of little white earbuds (don’t they know the sound sucks?) I’ve seen. I don’t know why I’m surprised – I mean you can’t walk more than about 100 feet without seeing a nano or a 4G somewhere (if I had just bought Apple stock when my *dad* purchased himself an iPod for Christmas a couple of years back…) Gez, if it’s this bad in the big Minnie, I can only imagine what San Fran or New York is like!
I’ve written about my iPod before and I have to admit…I really like it. Frankly, I don’t listen to that much music but I’m digging podcasts especially while I’m working out. I used to try to read a book or a magazine but never again – it’s just much easier to listen to something and with the quality of the podcasts out there I can learn a ton. Anyway, two of my favorite blogs commented on iPods and the Olympics and I just had to chime in. First, Clive Thompson, over at collision detection posted Do iPods help Olympic athletes perform better? where he points to an article from the Baltimore Sun. A little while later I ran into Kathy Sierra’s post iPods increase performance? which talks about the same article but also references this New York Times piece (interestingly, Clive and Kathy posted within 20 minutes of each other).
I completely understand athletes listening before their events – I used to throw the shot and the hammer and part of my routine was a selection of music to “put me in the mood” but the technology I had at my disposal pales in comparison to today. The jackets that the snowboarders wear sound incredibly cool:
The U.S. snowboarding team’s pinstriped uniforms are already wired for the machines, with a nifty iPod-size pocket, speakers in the hood and a control panel on the left sleeve that allows the athletes to select songs.
How cool is that? Man, wish I had one of those keeping me warm! The iPod will be indelibly identified with this Olympic games – from the speed skaters preparing for their races to the snowboarders rocking out while performing you couldn’t miss them. And most remarkable at all – Apple didn’t pay a dime for that exposure which, to me, makes it all that much more authentic.
“One of the lasting images of these games is going to be these snowboarders with their iPods,” said Abraham Madkour, executive editor of SportsBusiness Journal, a trade magazine that covers the sports industry. “It’s the perfect form of subconscious marketing.”
I was really fascinated at what different athletes were listening to (and the impact their revelations had on the artists) still, something just nags at me about an Olympic sport where you can jam away on your favorite music while competing. I wonder why none of the curlers are sporting iPods?
