Games gain bumper audiences,

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By Sean Maguire

BEIJING (Reuters) - Digital media and dazzling sporting feats have taken Olympic viewership to new heights, the IOC said on Wednesday as it debuted two events aimed at the young and adventurous.

The International Olympic Committee said a huge leap in online broadcast viewership in key markets and an avid TV audience in the host China, the world’s most populous country, would make the 2008 Games the most watched in history.

The figures were a boost to the Olympic movement which is embracing online distribution and admitting edgier sports to attract younger audiences less inclined to watch mainstream television or to follow the traditional medal events.

In the first Olympic 10km open water swim, Russia’s Larisa Ilchenko won by less than two seconds from Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten, sprinting past.....continued below

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Swimmers kicked and tussled for position in the Olympic rowing lake whose flat water, unlike the ocean waves often faced in the marathon swimming contest, allowed a fast time. Ilchenko, 19, has dominated the gruelling event since the age of 16.

South Africa amputee Natalie du Toit won admiration for her pluck in swimming the 10km but there was no medal for the 24-year-old, who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001. She finished 16th, around a minute behind Ilchenko.

Television-friendly BMX biking got its first start, bringing some counter culture attitude and extreme sports buzz to the Summer Games.

To the sound of thumping music eight bikers race each other down a three-storey start ramp, fly over rolling dirt bumps in helmets and protective padding, and crash their tiny bikes recklessly in action-packed races that last less than 40 seconds.

"Being a fast, intense spectator sport, it suits young people’s expectations," said France’s Anne-Caroline Chausson.

BIG NUMBERS

A record 1.2 billion people are thought to have watched the opening ceremony and 40 million people in the United States alone saw American swimmer Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal, an 18-year high for the NBC network’s Saturday evening viewing.

The American broadcaster, which paid nearly $900 million for exclusive U.S. rights, was drawing 30 times more video views online than for Athens when internet broadcast was young. More than 22 million clips were viewed so far.

"In China alone more than 102 million people watched the Games live online," said Timo Lumme, IOC director of TV and marketing services, and many more watched recorded segments.

Ratings were also strong in Britain, which has its biggest medal haul in a century and hosts the next Summer Games, and India which won its first individual gold in Beijing.

Britain’s 16 golds put it in an unaccustomed third place in the medal table. Success has been attributed to heavy investment in elite sports training and sets it up well for London 2012.

Ilchenko’s win pushed Russia to fourth place in the overall medals table, a far cry from when as the Soviet Union their mighty state-sponsored production line of athletes let them fight for Cold War sporting supremacy with the United States.

Now China has picked up that baton. The host’s 43 golds have given them an insurmountable lead over the Americans with 26, allowing China’s rulers to boast they now have sporting glory to match their economic might and superpower status.

ATHLETIC DRAMA AHEAD

More drama, and likely disappointment for a struggling U.S. track and field team, should come in the men’s 200 metres.

Jamaica’s Usain "Lightning" Bolt hopes to become the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win an Olympic sprint double, carrying on in style from his dazzling, world record 100m win.

"I like to enjoy what I do," said the lanky Bolt, who breezed through his 200m semi-final on Tuesday, playing up to TV cameras and taking a look round at competitors during the race.

"You can’t be too serious in your job."

Victory again for Bolt in the Bird’s Nest at 10:20 p.m. (1420 GMT) would make him as much a face of this Games as Phelps, whose eight golds give him a place of his own in the record books.

The Jamaican’s best in the 200m is 19.67 and he will have to find a new gear to break American Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old world record of 19.32 seconds.

Brazil’s women footballers will be trying to restore national pride in their final against the United States after their male counterparts were humbled by Latin American rivals Argentina.

The women were beaten in the 2004 final and are the favourites after destroying Germany 4-1 in their semi-final, although they have a reputation for stumbling at big moments.

That bodes ill after the men were dumped from their competition 3-0 in a loss that could spell the end of Dunga’s reign as coach of the Olympic team and the senior side.

"It’s a long time since I’ve seen Brazil so stingy and defensive," a watching Diego Maradona said of Brazil’s poor play.

(Reporting by Beijing Olympics bureau; Editing by Keith Weir)

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