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Olympics: Don't Watch the Athletes, Be the Athletes With Virtual Reality

See the Olympics 2018 scheduled games using virtual reality and augmented reality

For those with virtual reality headsets, the NBC Olympics is providing more than 50 hours of live VR coverage powered by Intel True VR during the 2018 PyeongChang Games. 

“I was surprised because I didn’t really think about how you could use virtual reality with the Olympics,” said Nisha Yerunkar, a third-year student at University of California, San Diego who is in VR Club on campus. “I think it’s a pretty cool idea because there’s so much you can see in virtual reality that you can’t see on a TV camera.”  

But for those without headsets, the NBC Sports VR app lets you experience the games with augmented reality right from your phone. 

David Aufhauser, Managing Director of Intel Sports and his team are producing at least 30 events as completely immersive experiences.

"All of the content that we are producing and all of the experiences we are producing are under the NBC Sports brand," Aufhauser said. "All of that content will be available under NBC Sports VR." 

NBC Olympics is providing more than 50 hours of live Virtual Reality coverage during the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

"It's a really cool concept," added Yerunkar. 

Each night, a different sport will be featured in a short clip for everyone to view.

Viewers can watch curling from the perspective of the sliding stones in the game, or speed down a bobsledding course. 

"With an app like this where you can see what it is like to be there at the Olympics through the immersion of virtual reality or augmented reality it's much cooler because you know what it looks like because you have the app," said Yerunkar.   

For the full Virtual Reality experience, you can download the NBC Sports VR app. In the past, you've needed goggles to enjoy 360-degree and 180-degree videos, but now all you need is your mobile device and the app for the augmented reality experience.  

Some virtual reality games within the app may require controllers along with a VR headset. 

"Nothing like this has ever been offered before in virtual reality," said Aufhauser. "This is just the beginning." 

For the full schedule of live VR coverage of each event including the times you can watch each game in virtual reality, go here

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