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Editorial Marathon: This team knows everything about the Games

By: (Bo) and [Rob] and <Sara>

The only way I MIGHT lose a bar trivia night that has an Olympics category is if I'm playing against Rob Ready [and he is still standing upright without slurring his speech]. Why? Because this editorial team knows everything, EVERYTHING [seriously, like everything] there is to know about the Olympics--Olympic history, why Francisco Lazaro didn't finish the 1912 Games (he died), how Olympic basketball isn't the same as NBA basketball (something only Tony would know), and which googly-eyed mascot belongs where <"I can't help it. I like cute.">. We've got it down. But it's been a marathon of a process (ask Tom).

I knew nothing about sports or the athletes for Beijing 2008 when we were told, "Make Olympic questions for an Olympic quiz." It was a painstaking, fact-checking, guessing, brain-racking process, all of which lead up to one question: What is interesting about the Olympics?

Then it turned into a "What is true about the Olympics?" What do you mean the 1980 Moscow Games weren't the first to be boycotted? It says so, right here, on the Internets! What do you mean this American isn't competing for America? Americans ALWAYS compete for America ... that's why we're Americans! Yaaaarrrrr!

Breathe. Cry a little. Drink some beer [the latter an ancient Canadian tradition].

And, we're back.

On top of our regular Deadline duties, we've been stockpiling trivia about the Olympics in an attempt to separate out the fanboys jumping on the Olympic '08 bandwagon from the real Olympic hardliner fans [Note: Bo is a total fanboy] (Thanks, Rob). We admit, it's a tough quiz, though from the number of 100% we've seen, you wouldn't know it (people are much smarter than ... well ... me).

Some notes on the Olympics quiz: We kept the politics out of this one. We left them for you in Deadline, but the Oly quiz is sports-flavored, athlete-focused. We also had to write most of the extended answers this time around, so we had to be a little more creative [Response upon being asked to actually write something: "I am illiterate."].

We really couldn't have done it without Tom. He made more Oly questions than all of your other editors (those lazy gits). Also, we can't forget Maureen, our underpaid ("volunteer," we call it) intern this summer who actually went to the library and checked out Olympics books for us (cute).

And the content is amazing and all (thank you, thank you), but our quiz questions wouldn't be half as much fun without the cheats, bling and what-have-you, courtesy of our boys in Dev.
 They've been working strange hours, running back and forth working on stuff while we look on haplessly and feel a little useless (that could just be me). This week has reduced them from our chillax dev gurus to incarcerated, pizza-eating, computer vampires. Mad props and much love, guys. They rock hard.

Anyways, take the quiz. And enjoy the Games.

Live now:

In the US  http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/trivia

In Australia http://media.foxsports.com.au/multimedia/2008/07/olympics-quiz/

In India  http://sify.com/sports/olympics/olympicsQuiz.php

In South Africa http://sport.iafrica.com/beijing2008/quizz/

P.S. Our motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius, Bar Trivius Drinksus

Gotta Love the Aussies: "Challenge Your Mates"

Newzwag's interactive version of the Olympics quiz is live in Australia and boy, the Aussies are having fun playing. They're spending an average of 17min playing according to our stats. Go ahead, "Pit your wits and find out just how good your Olympic knowledge really is, or challenge a friend and go head-to-head to determine who knows the most when it come to the Games."

In Australia, the games live here Interactive Olympics Quiz.

Cheat and Smack Talk Your Way to a Gold 'Medal'

Summer Games Trivia at Yahoo! Sports Tests Your Olympic Mettle

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 7, 2008 - Summer Games Trivia, a newly minted online application from Newzwag, a subsidiary of Agence France-Presse (AFP), is available on Yahoo! Sports throughout the month of August.  The new game synthesizes news stories and photos from the AFP's media machine into a challenging, entertaining and addictive game focused on Olympic sports and athletes, both past and present.

    Newzwag's Summer Games Trivia on Yahoo! Sports makes the news engagement application about the Olympics available to the Internet's largest audience of sports fans.  The game resides on Yahoo! Sports' newly launched website dedicated to covering the Summer Games at http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/trivia. 

    Summer Games Trivia has many appealing features that enhance community and social interaction.  You earn cheats to get ahead on the leader board and you can smack talk your friends about your ranking.  The game is free to anyone who wants to play, with no strings attached (you don't have to buy anything or get spammed after playing).  The content is updated in real time, so no trivia stone goes unturned throughout the run of the Games.  You can invite your friends to play or compete with complete strangers, all the while gaining critical Olympic knowledge you can insert into any conversation or bring up at family gatherings.

    As Newzwag's first large-scale foray into the social media space, Summer Games Trivia is just a taste of what is to come, with more applications being introduced over the next year related to relevant cultural events and themes.   

About Newzwag
Newzwag is a subsidiary of Agence France-Presse (AFP).  The company develops technologies and ideas that bring one of the world's richest news resources to the rapidly evolving world of social media.  For more information, check out www.newzwag.com.

About Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Agence France-Presse is a global media company providing real-time news coverage 24/7 with a worldwide network of more than 3,000 journalists and stringers spanning 165 countries.  AFP covers the full spectrum of world events, from politics and general news to sports, business, entertainment, health and science.  For more information, visit www.afp.com.

Olympic, Olympiad, the Olympic rings, Beijing 2008 and related marks are owned by the International Olympics Committee, the Chinese Olympic Committee, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, or their related entities. AFP, Newzwag, Yahoo! and Summer Games Trivia are neither endorsed by nor affiliated with any of the Olympic entities.

Contact: 
Bronagh Hanley
Bronagh@bignoisepr.com
415-314-7262