U.S. athletes will wear adidas warm-up suits during
medal ceremonies at the Summer Games in Sydney, according to
Guy Trebay of the N.Y. TIMES, who called the "asymmetric
outfits" featuring "fitted jackets and stitched-on chevrons
that converge to emphasize not only the medals but the
athletes' physiques -- a novel idea." The new uniforms were
unveiled yesterday in N.Y., and Trebay notes that in Sydney,
"you won't be seeing any unseemly logo brouhaha [as occurred
in '92 with the Michael Jordan/Reebok incident]," as U.S.
athletes will "sign waivers guaranteeing that, should they
happen to [win a] medal, they will do so wearing the
official sponsor's clothes" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/11). Also in N.Y.
John Jeansonne writes that the event "was staged by adidas
to boast" that the company will outfit more than 3,500
athletes at the Games. adidas "has agreements" to provide
U.S. competition uniforms "with just five" NGB's, including
weightlifting, boxing, gymnastics, fencing and men's
volleyball, and while USAT&F "is under contract to dress all
its athletes" in Nike competition uniforms. But once they
appear on the medal stand, the Nike uniforms "must be
covered by adidas award suits" (NEWSDAY, 7/11).
SIMULATION STIMULATION? In UT, Vince Horiuchi writes
that the SLOC will be using PCs "to study how buses and
visitors move" to 2002 Games venues, and how Olympic staff
"will handle bottlenecks that might cause congestion" at the
Games. Horiuchi: "It's just one of three ways officials are
using PCs to simulate the two-week Games to figure out what
problems might erupt." In addition to testing the flow of
buses and pedestrians, the SLOC is "running simulations to
see how their computer networks will hold up and how well
data like racing times" will transmit from the venues to
broadcasters (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 7/11).
