IBM Helps US Olympic Committee Team Reach Top Performance

NASHVILLE, TN, November 10, 1994 . . . IBM technology helps keep athletes
at their optimum levels of performance, whether its monitoring the heart
rate of a runner to check how it fluctuates during training, or providing
access to vital medical records.

As a 1996 U.S. Olympic Team Sponsor, IBM provides an impressive lineup of
its latest information technology, systems integration services,
consultation and support to The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games
and to the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) at its Olympic Training Centers
(OTCs) in Colorado Springs, Colo., Lake Placid, NY., as well as San Diego,
Calif., which is set to open in Spring, 1995.

IBM helps the USOC Sport Science and Technology Division in its efforts to
analyze and improve athletic results. Sensors track performance data in a
variety of sports and relay information back to IBM computers for ongoing
analysis and tracking. The information is collected, processed into
reports and stored so that the coach and athlete can review it to detect
errors in motion and improve performance.

About 30 IBM desktop personal computers and three ThinkPad mobile computers
help USOC Sport Science and Technology staff measure, analyze and
interpret information gathered on athletic performance.

These systems are used for data acquisition, biomechanical analysis,
exercise physiology, sports psychology, engineering and computer science.
Applications range from computer interactive videos that can be applied to
any sport to provide comparative analysis for training tactics to heart
rate analysis of runners on a treadmill. Applying physics, the coach can
guide the athlete to optimize techniques through a careful study of the
biomechanical data collected.

In other areas, IBM AS/400 business computers and storage devices serve as
the "workhorses" running the Resource Information Network for Games and
Sports (RINGS). This participant database maintains operational reports
and many specialized reports like the medical histories of athletes
training at all OTC facilities. This database now tracks and links
information on a total of 20,000 athletes, coaches, trainers and other
staff members from all USOC locations.

IBM consultants and information systems experts helped to tie together a
network of over 200 IBM desktop personal computers, 50 ThinkPad mobile
computers, three IBM AS/400 business computers, laser printers, storage
devices and a communications network between the USOC's Colorado Springs
and Lake Placid offices and training centers.

This network, managed by the USOC's Management Information Systems (MIS)
Division in Colorado Springs, provides access to information, technologies
and services that help the OTCs operate much more efficiently.

The USOC's MIS Division even took a mobile token-ring network with an IBM
AS/400 business computing system to the U.S. Olympic Festival in St. Louis
during July 1994, where it won many kudos and served as a model for future
sports events. The AS/400 helped to speed up the processing of apparel for
the thousands of athletes who competed. In addition, 40 IBM ThinkPad
mobile computers helped the USOC Press Services staff speed up sending
results and stories back to the Main Press Center for the 1,000 national
and local reporters on-site during the ten days of competition.

Work is underway at the USOC headquarters to implement an executive
information system that will provide management reports on demand, an
imaging study and a needs analysis to determine requirements for a
facilities planning and design system. IBM's systems experts are working
hard each day to help maximize the performance of its systems and to help
the management information systems group reach new levels of service
throughout its entire USOC headquarters organization and the OTCs.

As worldwide information technology sponsor, IBM is providing systems and
people to help plan, manage and run the Olympic Games through the year
2000.

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