ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: While organizers brace for an onslaught of traffic ahead of the Olympic games in Sydney, the techies behind the official Web site are getting ready for their own traffic jams. They're expecting a million hits a minute from those taking the information superhighway to the games. CNN's Allison Thom reports.</s>ALLISON THOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This year Sydney Olympics will be a landmark event in the Internet's brief history. It represents one of the biggest tests yet for new media. IBM has built a complex infrastructure on the Web to handle the demand during the games. Internet users will be able to find highlights, results and endless statistics for every sport. At IBM's command center in Sydney, a technical team prepares for what's expected to be one of the most heavily visited Web sites in history.</s>TOM FUREY, IBM: We're anticipating anywhere around 6 billion hits over the course of the 17 days of the Sydney Olympics and somewhere between 1 and 2 million hits a minute.</s>THOM: The big time difference between Sydney, Europe and the United States will lure fans to the Net.</s>FUREY: It's an enormous amount of traffic, and we have planned the infrastructure to accommodate that kind of traffic during the games. So the sites we have all over the world will be tuned and ready to handle the anticipated load for these games.</s>THOM: Technology enthusiasts say the Internet will have something to offer just about everyone, even those watching the events live on television. And fans won't be the only ones spending hours surfing the Net. Athletes in the Olympic Village will have their own cybercafe, where they can access fan mail. Allison Thom, CNN.
IBM Prepares to Take the Olympics Online