Following the outbreak of Romney accused of buying
Twitter followers, a triple-jumper got sacked from the Greek team to
compete to the London Olympics 2012 due to a Twitter post in her feed mocking
African immigrants in Greece much to the dismay of her followers, Greeks and
Olympic s fans the world over.
Voula Papachristou, a 23-year-old triple-jumper and member of
the Greece delegation to this year’s Olympic Games, was expelled by the
Hellenic Olympic Committee after the young lady athlete posted a tweet last
Sunday regarding African immigrants in Greece. With the London Olympics social
move launching
an athlete’s hub, it looks like the Greek delegation has cut a budding
problem in the nip – that is, expelling careless athlete tweeters from their
team. Meanwhile, the controversial tweet continues to garner the athlete social
media and internet notoriety instead of gold-medal-snagging fame.
Officials of the Hellenic Olympic Committee viewed
Papachristou’s tweet referring to African immigrants in Greece as “West Nile
mosquitoes” contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic Movement. The young
athlete was in preparations to head to London for her first-ever participation
of the Olympic Games but was shown the red light when she allegedly posted a
joke on Twitter about African immigrants.
A Tasteless Joke?
"With so many Africans in Greece, at least the
mosquitoes of West Nile will eat homemade food!!!",Papachristou tweeted
Sunday. Her tweet, including retweets of Greece’s extreme right-wing party
Golden Dawn’s issues with immigration, proved to be quite a leap out of her
biggest opportunity in her career in sports.
The tweet earned the triple jumper ire from armies of
Twitter users from all over the world, Greek citizens, and even government
officials who viewed her tweet as racist and tasteless. Papachristou, on the
other hand, asserted that’s how she is and stood by her comments only to change
her tune upon learning her ticket to London would be no more.
I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal (cont) tl.gd/ih3mcpApology Accepted But Damage Has Been Done
— βούλα Παπαχρήστου (@papaxristoutj) July 25, 2012
Despite the young jumper’s remorseful apologies she posted later on Wednesday in her Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Hellenic Delegations’ Administration Board decided to bump her off the National Team citing "comments that go against the values and ideals of Olympism."
The 2012 Olympic Games happening in London (games started last Wednesday and opening ceremonies to start on Friday) have earned the buzz of being the first “social media Olympics” with the foresight that social networks will be playing a prominent role during the 16-day event. The International Olympic Community has released a social media, blogging and internet guidelines for all people involved in the Olympics weeks before the games commenced.
