Unlike IBM's experience at the '96 Games, the company
"appears to be on track for a gold" in Sydney, according to
Olympic officials cited by Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the
WASHINGTON POST. IOC Dir of Marketing Michael Payne said
IBM's system in Sydney "all works perfectly. IBM worked
very hard to address some of the issues that concerned us
from the previous Games." AP Sports Editor Terry Taylor,
comparing IBM's efforts in Atlanta and Sydney: "It's been
night and day. ... I still came [to Sydney] holding my
breath, but from the get-go, the results have come in
without a problem." IBM, which is in its last year as an
IOC TOP sponsor, has "spared no expense" with its Sydney
effort, "spending millions of dollars" and having 2,000
employees and 4,000 volunteers working at the Games. IBM
VP/Worldwide Olympic & Sports Sponsorship Eli Primrose-
Smith: "Things are going very well. But we're still taking
things a day at a time" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/26). IBM's
"Surf Shack" at the Olympic Village in Sydney has drawn
"thousands of athletes daily," who have created more than
3,100 personal Web pages and received more than 250,000 e-
mail messages since the Games started (AP, 9/26).
