iPod gets a free lunch

Edvarcl Heng | Feb 20, 2006

The iPod certainly has it good. Even without a single penny of sponsorship, it has made news at the Winter Olympics in Torino as the music player of choice for the US snowboarding team. According to reports, Olympic athletes have been seen plugged into the ubiquitous audio device during practice and competitions.

The US snowboarding team has even gone high-tech. Eschewing boring winter coats, these athletes look spiffy in the Burton Snowboard jacket which has iPod controls incorporated in the attire. Speakers integrated into the hood thump out tunes to the likes of AC/DC's Back in Black.

Perhaps in the next games, the athletes might even be chatting with their loves ones through Bluetooth MP3 headsets as they barrel down a half pipe. Either the commonly held assumption that competitive events require absolute focus and attention is really a myth, or we'll be seeing several crushed iPods heading for Torino's dumpsite.