If you are curious about the origin story of Fantasy Olympian, Miranda Katz from WIRED did a great write-up on our history, our passion and our creation of the original Fantasy Olympics:
Like Bobsleigh Better than Basketball? Fantasy Olympian is Right for You.
Read MoreWith the qualifiers completed and the Olympic teams announced, our athlete list will be coming out very soon. That means you can start drafting! New to Fantasy Olympian or just need a refresher? Here are some tips on taking home the gold in your league!
DON'T get fooled by NBC into thinking the only athletes that matter are on Team USA. To be sure, we've got some great athletes who will deliver memorable performances, but they won't be the only ones. In the Winter Olympics, the highest scoring athletes usually come from other countries.
DO pay attention to events you do not usually watch. Biathlon and cross-country skiing do not normally get slots in primetime, but the top few athletes on our big board will all be from those events.
DON'T be fooled into drafting a one-event athlete or team too early. Let's say you are CERTAIN that the Canadian hockey team is winning gold this year. Great -- that's three points. You're going to need a lot more than that to...
Read MoreWelcome to Fantasy Olympian! We’ve had a busy offseason sine the Rio Games, but we are actively accepting new teams and leagues for the PyeongChang Games, which has its Opening Ceremony on February 9, 2018.
If you are new to Fantasy Olympian, we are glad you found us -- now in our 12th year! We've been doing this since 2006 and have gotten bigger every Olympic cycle. If you are returning, welcome back! We hope you like our new look and more user friendly drafting page. We're thankful to Steve Hammond, Nat Budin and Amy Newell for continuing to improve the site, and to Nicole Brazio for our new logo.
For the new and old alike, here's what to expect:
1. Registering Your Team and/or League
If you have not done so before, start by registering with FantasyOlympian.com. Past users can use their logins from 2016. As we have spelled out in greater detail in our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, we will not use your information for any purpose other...
Read MoreThe Fantasy Olympian Podcast is back! Check it out here or find us and subscribe on iTunes.
In the first podcast for the 2016 Rio Olympics, your hosts Bryan Clark and Jeremy Bridgman are joined by special guest Carrie Reid, the two-time defending overall Fantasy Olympian champion, to discuss how the game works, draft tips, what they are looking forward to at these Olympics, and what to make of the turmoil in Rio.
Read MoreWelcome everyone to Fantasy Olympian 2016! The site has been updated and we are now ready to accept new teams and leagues for the Rio 2016 Games, which start August 5, 2016 -- if everyone inolved in the Games can get their acts together!
If you are new to Fantasy Olympian, we are glad you found us -- this year we are celebrating our 10th anniversary! We've been doing this since 2006 and we have gotten bigger every Olympic cycle. If you are returning, welcome back! It's always great to see the same folks returning every couple years. We're once again thrilled to have computer programmers Steve Hammond and Nat Budin in our corner making the site much more user friendly!
For the new and old alike, here's a look at how the game will work this year:
1. Registering with the site
If you have not dones so before, start by registering with FantasyOlympian.com. Past users can use their logins from...
Things got a little complicated this year with so many people playing, so for various reasons, we turned off the overall leaderboards. But many people have asked how their league winners compared to other league winners, so we have done some analysis. Before we get to the overall medalists, a few reminders about eligibility for the overall standings. First, you have to have at least 10 teams in your league. Leagues with fewer than 10 teams have an unfair advantage, so while some of those point totals are quite impressive, they are not factored in here. Second, you have to have a "real" league. More than one league had 10 "teams," but many of them were "dummy" teams that didn't draft in a logical fashion, so those leagues are out of consideration. Other leagues seemed to have set up their drafts based on country, which while an interesting experiment skews the results. So those leagues are...
Read MoreIf you've played Fantasy Olympian before or if you have followed us on social media, you know that 2014 has been a record-breaking year for Fantasy Olympian. After having approximately 150 participants for the 2012 Olympics in London, we 1,540 teams this year! That included 33 school groups that participated in Fantasy Olympian in their classrooms.
Our little site -- which started as a blog for four people during the 2006 Olympics -- generated more than 131,000 page views from more than 5,000 unique visitors. Not surprisingly, our biggest sources of visitors were Chicago, New York, and Boston, but we also had traffic from all of the United States, Australia, Great Britain, Korea, Scandinavia, and yes, even Sochi. Moral of the story? Fantasy Olympian 2014 was truly a global affair!
We're also happy to report that more than 300 of you downloaded one of our first two podcasts -- so we hope you enjoy the third installment, available below.
... Read MoreThe Olympics Games are one of those things that seems to simultaneously pass very quickly and very slowly. Think back to the 5th snowflake that failed to open into an Olympic ring during the opening ceremony. Not to pick on the opening ceremony, but that was probably the first really memorable event ofthe games for me. So much has happened during the last two weeks, the ceremony seems like it was forever ago. And on the other hand, these two weeks have passed very quickly, and it seems like it was just yesterday. This is particularly true, when I think about how far away the 2018 Winter Games, in South Korea, are.
As I look back on the last two weeks, I'd like to highlight a couple of memorable moments, and things I liked best about these games.