107th IOC Session - LA84 Foundation

day the Olympic Village opened, and stayed
online for 33 days from January 24 to February
25, 1998. During the Games, the system was
accessed a total of 11.4 million times, and
reached a peak of over 600,000 access requests
on Day Six (February 12) of the Games.
Cooperation between
News Agencies
Two news organizations were responsible
for writing and gathering news for Info’98, and
the local Shinano Mainichi Daily Newspaper
worked in cooperation with the Kyodo News
Agency to provide writing and editing staff.
Fifty-two journalists in all, including freelance
journalists from around the world, wrote and
edited the news in French, English, and
Japanese. Twenty-one people were hired to provide
translating services.
Other information, such as athlete biographies,
historical results, and medal standings,
was collated by a 20-person data research team
comprised of three NAOC personnel, four translators,
and a variety of volunteers, mostly students
from Shinshu University’s technology
department. Experienced international sports
journalists endorsed by the various
International Federations were commissioned
to compile information about the athletes for
entry into the Info’98 system.
Fast-Breaking News
News was gathered from various sources
and covered a wide range of topics. Flash quotes
from athletes immediately following their event,
reports from press conferences, Olympic Village
or venue event information, and topics of general
interest could all be found on Info’98.
NAONA journalists sent their stories from each
venue to the editing offices, where they were reviewed
and translated for subsequent entry into
the Info’98 system. Offering a balance of news
stories in the three languages, a total of 2,200
news items in Japanese, 2,330 in English, and
2,000 in French were written. In principle,
Info’98 staff worked to release news reports on
the system within 15 minutes of their being
filed. During the Games, they were successful
in meeting this objective over 50 percent of the
time.
In order to obtain flash quotes from the
medallists, negotiations were held with the IOC
and ORTO’98 to allow NAONA journalists access
next to priority Rights Holders in the mixed
zones. NAONA personnel were permitted to
listen in during athletes interviews with the
Rights Holders to capture the athletes’ first
words after their events.
Reports for the Olympic
Newspaper and Info’98
were put together in the
NAONA Editing Office
(Nagano City).
181