Prior to the Sydney games,  an average of 200 visitors passed through NC.com daily.  On the first day of the Olympics, the number increased to 500, peaking on September 20 at 1500 (between the team and individual all-around competition).  The numbers then dipped to almost 900 on the 23rd. 

Then came word the All-Around gold medallist, Romania's Andreea Raducan, tested positive for Pseudoephedrine, a stimulant banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  Andreea was prescribed a cold medication, containing the banned stimulant,  by the Romanian team doctor.  Andreea, despite appeals, was required to return her gold medal.

Daily visitors reached more than 2500 on September 26, when the Raducan story was at full steam.  Nadia was mentioned in most articles on this story.  Besides the obvious Romanian connection, Nadia was very vocal about Andreea's plight.  Nadia was quoted several times in various articles.

Part of the huge increase in traffic may be due to Yahoo's style of posting articles.  Yahoo includes news and internet site links next to names and organizations mentioned in news articles.  This gave readers easy access to NC.com.

Visitors during the Olympics were most interested in photos from the 1976 Montreal games, the Bio Info section, and a few of the library articles.  I wonder if these visitors were press organizations looking up basic Nadia info for articles.

I also received many email requests from young students who were doing school projects about Nadia.  Some obviously had not looked in the BIO INFO section.  Their questions asked about her birth date, the year she scored THE ten, and what is she doing now.  One trivia buff asked what TIME of the day did Nadia score her first ten at the Olympics (I'm stumped on that one).

A huge number of e-mails requested information about video of Nadia's performances.  The Canadian Gymnastics Federation (GYMNASTICS CANADA GYMNASTIQUE) has videos of the women's competition from the Montreal Games.  Best of all, the video is without commentary.

The number of visitors have settled down to pre-Olympic levels.  It certainly was a busy few weeks collecting and posting articles, responding to emails, and updating NC.com almost three times daily.  I hope this site provided everyone with pertinent, timely information.

Come on back in 2004, ya hear!