CYBERSPORT.(SPORTS)(Review)

At least CBS has an excuse for showing us tape-delayed coverage of the Winter Olympics for the next two weeks. Nagano, Japan, is more than half a day ahead of us on the clock.

So what is real time? Even Spicoli knows it's the Internet.

(So if the Games are on their time, and I'm stuck in my time, wouldn't that make this our time?)

Dozens of Websites include some sort of Olympic element, but since so many overlap, it's not worth naming them all. Most are up and running in anticipation of heavy hit-traffic in the coming days. We'll stick to the gold-medal sites worth bookmarking:

The official Nagano site: http://www.nagano.olympic.org

When IBM paid $1 million so it could call itself the ``Worldwide Information Technology Partner of the Olympic Games,'' it took the title seriously. This is one seriously sumo-sized site, launched more than a year ago and growing with each click of the mouse. Biographies, history, panoramic views of the venues, entertainment - and results, with the IOC spin. Its most important feature might turn out to be the daily schedule of events since snow, fog and winds play havoc with everything and force hourly changes.

The official e-mail site: http://www.ibm.com/olympic/fanmail

About 500 athletes and coaches a day checked into the IBM Surf Shack during the '96 Summer Games in Atlanta for messages, e-mail and the opportunity to psyche out fellow competitors by spamming them before a big race. No guarantee your new e-mail pals will answer back, but reaching out and byting someone of note has never been easier.

The official CBS TV sites:

http://www.winterolympics.com

http://www.sportsline.com

The second site is the network-sponsored Sportsline USA, a viable competitor to ESPN SportsZone and CNN/SI in processing info and original content, even without the CBS affiliation. Of all the all-sports sites, this one come through best - if only to set up a live chat session with CBS' new snowboarding correspondent Kennedy - yup, the ultra-grunge veejay from MTV.

The official fun site:

http://www.sikids.com

It's not supposed to launch until Thursday, but ``the official education publishing sponsor'' of the Games gives the kids an excuse to goof around on an Olympic-related site to find stuff for that class project that was due yesterday. An audio language glossary will help kids learn to say phrases in Japanese, like ``Congratulations on your gold medal'' and ``Where are the keys to the Zamboni?'' (We could have used that last one at the hand car-wash the other day). There's the obligatory game, too. In this one, you help a snowboarder surf down Mt. Fuji. As he races against the clock, he dodges sumo wrestlers and avoids bad sushi (that's what the press release says) as he tries to grab medals. That's the American way.