iPod in the snow: a must have at this years Winter Olympics

Olympians from figure skater Kimmie Meissner to snowboarder Shaun White have been spotted listening to their iPods at the 2006 Turin Olympic Winter Games

23 February 2006 14:55 GMT / By Chris Hall

Olympians from figure skater Kimmie Meissner to snowboarder Shaun White have been spotted listening to their iPods at the 2006 Turin Olympic Winter Games.

Music is part of the extreme sports lifestyle - many competitions are set to rock anthems and this year in Turin, DJ Chainsaw has been selecting the tracks for the slopes. Music provides an up-beat, motivational soundtrack; John Kerr, British ice dancer, who skates with sister, Sinead, has said he likes to listen to "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson before events.

iPod is an athlete's perfect music companion - whether it be upside down on a jump, in the middle of a corkspin, or during a death spiral on the ice. iPod is light-weight and compact and fits easily into winter sports clothing, or onto your person with one of the growing selection of iPod accessories for sport.

Athletes can choose their favourite inspiration from more than 2 million songs available for download at the UK iTunes Music Store, which has been a firm favourite of music lovers since it launched June 2004. In fact, iTunes is about to hit a major milestone, with the countdown to the billionth song sold on the Store currently underway. The lucky person to download the billionth song will receive a 20² iMac, ten 60GB iPods and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card, providing credit to purchase music or videos from the iTunes Music Store. Apple will also create a scholarship in the winner's name at a leading music school.

The growing family of iPods also includes the perfect solution for every type of athlete. Choose from the iPod shuffle (priced from £49) and iPod nano (from £109), compact and with no moving parts, which are ideal for training, or the full-featured iPod with video capability (from £219), which is perfect for watching video clips and podcasts, along with holding your entire music library on the snow.