Torino2006.org traffic up 445% in February 2006

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino drew mlns of people to the Web in February 2006, propelling the Sports category onto the list of top 10 gaining categories, comScore says. US Olympic team sites drew the most Olympic-related traffic with 2.6 mln visitors, which marked a 34% increase from January 2006. The biggest gainer among Olympic sites was Torino2006.org, which saw a 445% jump in visitation from January 2006, reaching 1.5 mln visitors. Several other sports sites were buoyed by Olympics coverage, including ESPN (up 7% to 17.8 mln visitors), Yahoo! Sports (up 18% to 13 mln visitors), and AOL Sports (up 44% to 11.7 mln visitors). Interest from NASCAR fans geared up online in February with the Daytona 500, propelling the site onto the list of top 10 gaining properties with 4.7 mln visitors (up 90%).