Sports imPULSE

How To Watch The Olympics LIVE Online (Because NBC Won't Show Them To You)

Are you one of the millions of Americans infuriated that NBC is preventing you from watching the Olympics as they happen?

We are, too. 

Most of the fun of watching live sports events is the suspense of not knowing who won -- and NBC's habit of tape-delaying daytime events is ruining the Olympics for us and millions of other sports fans.

But here's some good news.  NBC owns the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S., but it does not own the right to prevent you from watching the Olympics live (though it's trying its best to make sure that you don't).

Those who have the good fortune to be in other countries during these two exciting weeks can watch all the Olympics live anytime they want, just by turning on their TVs or going online (lucky them!).  And if you're willing to do a bit of technical work, you can do the same.

Sites like this Canadian one stream video of the Olympics live.  Unfortunately, you can't just go to these sites and watch using your local US Internet connection, because NBC's friends have blocked access from US ISPs.  What you can do, however, is access the Canadian site from a Canadian ISP, using a virtual private network.

What is a Virtual Private Network? In this case, it is a virtual connection that routes your entire Internet session through a server somewhere else in the world--allowing you to watch, say, Canadian Olympics broadcasts that are available to people in Canada. And it's perfect for watching the Olympics live, when NBC is refusing to show them to you.

Setting up a VPN

requires some technical work, and you might have to pay a modest amount for it.  But if you're a frustrated sports fan, it's a great way to take matters into your own hands.

Guide to 2010 Winter Olympics Online

The 2010 Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver tonight, and for those of you who can’t be tied to your TV every night to watch the opening and closing ceremonies and competitions, here’s a compilation of sites where you can not only watch video highlights of the events but also see pictures, scores, medal counts and news from the Olympics:

1. NBC Olympics:NBC, which is covering the Olympics on TV, has also set up a site where you can catch the latest scores, news and select video coverage of the competitions (powered by Microsoft Silverlight). You can also see profiles of athletes and streams of Tweets from athletes on the U.S. Olympic teams. Unfortunately, it appears that NBC is severely limiting the streaming of competitions and the ceremonies to the general public, so video will most probably be comprised of short highlights.

2. Vancouver 2010: Sponsored by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the games, this site offers schedule of events, up-to-date results and maps of the various event sites in Vancouver.

3. Google: Google has optimized its mobile search to provide better results for Olympics searches. On Google’s mobile search interface, you can search for the name of your favorite sport, and the engine will give you the latest info about game results, schedules, medal count and more. On Android and iPhone devices, the search engine’s real time search feature will show you the latest updates related to the games within the same search results.

4. Twitter: For real-time updates from the athletes, Twitter has complied a list of verified Olympic athletes. A site called Twitter-Athletes also provides the handles of many of the Olympians at the winter games.

5. Facebook: On Facebook, there is a dedicated page for the Vancouver Games from the Organizing Committee as well as a page from the International Olympics Committee, which will collects Facebook updates from athletes and post up-to-date photos from the various events.

6. Flickr: Flickr has teamed up the International Olympic Committee to create an official photo group on the photo sharing site. The IOC will also use the Flickr group to publish its official event photos, as well as upload images to its own Flickr photo stream.

7. Yahoo Sports: Yahoo Sports has launched a Winter Olympics site that will offer news coverage, photos, videos, medal counts and statistics. This week, Yahoo announced that it has also optimized its search engine for Winter Olympics news and stats.

8. Yahoo Mobile:  Yahoo has also rolled out a mobile web site to allow users to news, event schedules, stats and pictures on the go.

9. iPhone Apps: Apple has recommended several iPhone apps to help you keep up with news, schedules and more, including NBC’s official Olympics App, Canadian TV channel CTV’s Olympics App, push notifications-enabled Vancouver Games, and  Olympic Games news aggregatror Winter Games Grub.