• The Web site of the real power behind the Olympic Games — NBC. Since the network owns the rights to nearly every image created at the Games, your first chance to see photos and footage may be here. Watch the athletes for the lesser-known sports explain their disciplines.

www.nbcolympics.com/index.html

• All American athletes, all the time. No, not the NBC site — the site of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

www.usoc.org

• Follow the traffic in Greece, see the new Chinese uniforms and read all kinds of news about the Olympics, collected in one place from Web sites around the world.

www.livingroom.org.au/olympics

• The original ancient Games, up close and personal. Some athletes competed in full military armor; others got pounded in an event called the pankration, in which only biting and gouging were illegal.

www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/index.html

• The Olympics had already been tainted by events in the outside world — Hitler's presence at the 1936 Games, the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in 1972 — but in 1980, the Olympics became a weapon in the Cold War. Learn more about why the U.S. Summer Olympic team never made it to Moscow that year.

www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/20/spotlight/

• The current temperature in downtown Athens is — 84 degrees. But on Mount Parnitha, where the mountain bike competition will take place, the temperature is a relatively balmy 77. The Hellenic National Meterological Service can give you the forecast for each of the Olympic venues.

www.hnms.gr/emy/english/ath2004

• Those who are headed for Athens can scare themselves silly (or feel ultra-prepared) by reading the U.S. State Department's information sheet on travel to the Olympic Games.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/olympics_fact_sheet.html

• Next stop for the Summer Games: Beijing. The history of past Games and details on upcoming Games (winter and summer) are at the official Web site of the Olympic movement.

www.olympic.org/uk/index-uk.asp

• Pinheads, stuffed mascot collectors and Olympic numismatists, this is the place for you. The official organizations that promote Olympic collecting will keep you away from the cheap stuff and the fakes.

www.collectors.olympic.org

• If it's not a mainstream sport, it's here. Archery, fencing, synchronized swimming and more.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002862/main.htm%3ftqskip11&tqtime0926

• The U.S. Embassy in Athens gives you the lowdown on crime, traffic and customs in Greece.