Twitter
has become extremely popular over the past few years and lots of people of all
ages have accounts these days. Athletes and other celebrities like to use
twitter to give their fans a brief look into their lives and let fans know some
of what they're up to. As much as twitter has become a great way to connect
with others, it has also become a great way to get in trouble. People tend to
say anything that comes to their mind on twitter and fail to realize it could
be perceived in a negative way by others. So far in these Olympics a few
athletes have found ways to get themselves in trouble via twitter. Here are
some of the biggest twitter mistakes of the olympics so far....
Voula Papachristou's African joke
Greek
triple jumper Voula Papachristou was probably looking forward to competing at
the London games but thanks to her offensive tweet about Africans, she got
kicked off the Greek squad before the games even began. Papachristou tweeted
"With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will
eat home made food!’. Well Voula your tweet kept you at home, don't let the
West Nile mosquitoes bite you.
Hope Solo takes shots at Brandi Chastain
Hope
didn't have to face harsh penalties for this but her coach Pia Sundhage made
sure to have a talk with her. Oh yea, Hope did not apologize for her comments
and has no intentions of keeping her mouth shut either.
Michel Morganella's racial slur
After
hearing about Voula Papachristou getting kicked off the Greek Olympic squad for
her racial/ethnic joke you would think all other athletes would keep racial
jokes to themselves. Turns out not everyone thinks like that. I had never heard
of Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella until news broke about his racist
tweet. Morganella was obviously not happy about his team's loss to South Korea
and decided to tweet a racial slur directed at them. The Swiss team reacted
quickly by sending him home and deleting his twitter account. The tweet was
written in French, told Koreans to “burn themselves” and called them a “bunch
of tards”. I don't know if Morganella did not think his comments were severe or
he just didn't care about the potential consequences but this is another
perfect example of athletes/celebrities forgetting that they are in the
spotlight and everything they say will be criticized. Definitely not a good way
to represent your country Michel.
Lolo Jones' "Gun" comment
American
superstar hurdler Lolo Jones surely did not want her first mark on the Olympics
to be a negative one. Unfortunately for the gold medal hopeful, she has joined
the list of athletes who don't watch what they say. Jones' tweet was something
like this "We didn't win gold in archery, well we're Americans when does
the shooting competition begin?" Sometimes it's not what you say that is
the problem but the timing of your comment that can get you in trouble. Lolo's comment
comes just over a week after the massacre in the Colorado movie theater. Many
perceived her tweet as relating shooting with the U.S. I'm sure that wasn't her
intent but still it wouldn't have been ok to make a joke about a plane crashing
into a building after 9/11. She quickly clarified the meaning of her tweet by
assuring the public that where she comes from hunting is very popular and that
is what she was getting at with her tweet. We forgive you Lolo but just be
careful with the timing of your future jokes on twitter.
As the
games continue athletes will continue to tweet and the public will continue to
take it out of context. I'm sure all coaches will be lecturing their athletes
on being careful of what they post on social media. If athletes don't take this
seriously we might see more of them being sent home early.
Thanks for reading
and don't forget to follow us on twitter. @EJPOnTheBeat @AGuleed
- Stay in Shape
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