CNN – Gold medal in creative online Olympics coverage

It’s Opening Ceremonies Eve, and just like the Olympic torch passes from one hand to another, CNN Digital is publishing one insightful and quirky feature after another that you’ll want to see at www.cnn.com/olympics. It’s not available yet, but hang tight, more will unfold over the course of the Games. That said, there are some cool things to read and look at now, including an interactive showing the evolution of the Olympic athlete since 1896.  The interactive shows results for men and women across several sports, and yes, sometimes the women have better results (I’m looking at you, discus). There’s also a special franchise called Human to Hero, which profiles Olympic athletes. You may want tissues handy, because of the emotional stories the athletes share, the standard of excellence they espouse, the sense that they’ve poured a lifetime into training for victory, the patriotism they feel…all of those emotions give the “I feel like I am there” voice to our online coverage.

And lest we not forget the fun stuff. The feature Olympic mascots, cute or creepy?, provides a history on Olympic mascots and the accompanied controversy where appropriate. There’s also plenty of photo galleries and other forthcoming editorial. If you want to see what the network is doing as a whole, check out our official press release.