Tim Watt: Kjersti Platzer

kjersti Platzer asks 'wish me luck'

Kjersti says she won't be allowed to post updates to her site during the Games. In her final message from before heading for athens - she says 'all the good memories I have from Australia are coming back to me in these pre Olympic days. You can imagine that this gives me a good feeling and a lot of motivation. Sydney will be unforgettable for me! Time is really flying, mnay things have happened since then and I am looking forward to go to Athens. I am well prepared. 'I would like to thank all of you who have helped and have supported me on my way to Athens! You all did great!'

Olympic Weblogs multiplying

According to my google research there are currently still only a small number of proper weblogs for the Games - but the numbers are bound to grow, and maybe come the media background story of the Games. As the inventor of the medium Dave Winer writes, people are getting tired of the misquotes and soundbites in traditional media - better to follow the motto 'if you don't like the news you get, make some of your own'. Out there so far is a rather dreary Aussie Olympic weblog and some volunteer sites. The best I've seen so far is by Stuart Hughs, a BBC insider with a fascinating story to tell. Unfortunately, this site doesn't allow an easy way to make comments and uses the Atom version of RSS - but is good with audio and video. My favourite headline is " BAD OLYMPIC JOKE OF THE DAY - Irish distance runner caught doing craic". A sports phoographer is claimed to have a blog - the first post but no linked webpage is here US 20km Phil Dunn has a site including photos from the Athens race course. Kjersti Platzer, Robert Korzeniowski and Jefferson Perez and other walkers have web journals, though not really weblogs. There have been rumours of a crack down on athletes posting to the web from the village - but within certain limits, and technology willing, there should be no problem posting updates to here from Athens.

Kjersti happy to be back home from St. Moritz

Norway's Sydney Olympics Silver medal winner Kjersti Plätzer is happy to be back home after training at altitude, a yesterday walked 12:10.03 to win her national 3000m championship. 'To be sure that I am well recovered when I go home from altitude I always have some days with easy training at the end of the altitude camp. The last days in St. Moritz were easy and I was ready to go home from a very good training camp. I did a good block of endurance and technical training up in St. Moritz and it's some years ago since I could go home from an altitude camp with such a good feeling :-)'