IF MULTIMEDIA were a competitive sport, Archimedia Interactive would have a shot at the gold. The Dallas company recently released 1996 U.S. Olympic Team ($29.95), the official CD-ROM of the summer games, which can be purchased in stores or on the World Wide Web (www.olympiccdrom.com). The disc features extensive profiles of track stars Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Houstonian Carl Lewis—with video of them in action—as well as shorter bios of other Olympic hopefuls and coaches in every sport, including Dallas sprinter Michael Johnson, Austin cyclist Lance Armstrong, and Silsbee weightlifter Mark Henry. You can also look back at the 1984, 1988, and 1992 games and relive famous Olympic moments, such as Bruce Jenner’s 1976 decathlon comeback. And the disc’s Spectator Guide gives the lowdown on each sport’s major maneuvers. (What’s a gainer? A dive in which you face forward and flip backward.) When the games begin on July 19, the Web site will link to NBC’s homepage, which will track the progress of the U.S. team with daily updates—marking the first time ever that the road to the Olympics has gone through cyberspace.
