Google surfacing in-depth Olympics coverage right in the Discover feed

Abner Li | Jul 27 2021 - 5:39 pm PT

With Tokyo 2020 well underway, there’s just a barrage of news about various events, results, and medal standings. Google Discover is highlighting a hub of sorts that’s quite a nice way to keep track of all things Olympics.

For some, the Discover invites them to “Follow the 2020 Olympics” with an inline card. Others that have been heavily searching about Olympic developments look to be automatically opted in.

It starts with an “Olympic Games Tokyo 2020” header that’s followed by a Web Story to see the “Latest photos” of athletes competing. One very useful card is for “Featured events” with an auto-advancing carousel. Also available in Search, it includes drawn cover images and what time the competition starts. This is particularly tuned to events featuring countries/teams and athletes you’ve searched for in recent days.

Speaking of nations, there’s also a useful Medal tally that breaks down gold, silver, and bronze. You can quickly perform a search and see the full list by tapping on that card.

This Google Discover Olympics section ends with one news card or YouTube video that often provides a daily recap from your local Olympics broadcaster.

Users are also seeing an “Athletes in 3D” card to launch that fun 3D experience. Elsewhere, the Google app offers a medal-laden homescreen shortcut to the “Tokyo Olympics 2020” query and Knowledge Panel.

Elsewhere, there’s the elaborate “Champion Island” game accessible from the Google Doodle, YouTube TV integration, and a Google TV hub.