Athletes play video games as Olympics go virtual

By John Gaudiosi

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - If 24-hour coverage of the Olympic Games in China isn't enough for fans, Sega has rolled out the official video game of the 2008 events in Beijing for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and mobile phones.

It offers 38 events from track and field to swimming to judo and has online play for the first time in an Olympics game.

Every four years, a different publisher tackles the Summer Games.

Sega enlisted U.S. gold medal contenders Amanda Beard, Tyson Gay, Nastia Liukin and Reese Hoffa for the cover of "Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games."

It turns out these Olympians are also gamers.

"I was so excited to be on the cover," said Beard, a seven-time Olympic medallist. "To be with these other athletes who are on the cover with me, now I can cheer and watch them at the Olympics and then go home and play the video game."

Beard, the youngest U.S. swimmer to ever bring home the gold after her performance at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, was also playing virtual Olympics games at an early age.

"I played the old Nintendo Olympics game with the Power Pad, where you started out as the turtle and worked your way up to the cheetah," said Beard.