The Web strikes Olympic gold By Cynthia Hubert -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, February 23, 2006 Story appeared in Scene section, Page E1

While NBC was still airing its daytime soap operas this week, much of the nation already knew about Shani's heroics on the ice, Bode's futility on the slopes and Sasha's first showing at the rink.

The impatient masses got results and pictures live on the Internet, and statistics suggest that a good percentage of them probably skipped the prepackaged Olympics television coverage.

2002 Olympics Site of the 2002 Winter Olympics - Salt Lake City, Utah Two skiiers take a moment from fun to pose and enjoy the natural beauty of the Utah mountains.

While NBC has reported less-than-stellar TV ratings for the Olympics, which have been trounced by "American Idol," the network's online home of the Turin Games has been on fire.

With five days left in the competition, NBCOlympics.com on Tuesday set a traffic record with 261.1 million page views, surpassing the 251.4 million for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Web site visitors, unlike their couch-potato counterparts, can cut to the chase for up-to-the-minute results and video highlights of the sports and competitors that most interest them. With high-speed Internet, they can view complete runs and routines for American competitors on demand. They can watch slide shows and listen to interviews.

"I can find out who won the gold medal right away, with a couple of clicks of a mouse," said geof lambert , a business recruiter and Olympics fan who chairs a state task force on the Internet. "The time difference makes it a perfect fit. Why would I sit around and wait for it to happen on network TV?"

In fact lambert, who uses lowercase letters for both his first and last name, doesn't even need a computer to keep up with the Games. He just presses some cell phone buttons.

On the NBCOlympics.com site, skater Sasha Cohen has prompted a lot of clicking. As of Wednesday, she was the site's "most viewed" athlete. Snowboarder Shaun White and speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno also cracked the top 10....