Racist tweet gets Greek athlete expelled from Games

LONDON—Athletes racing to share their views with fans at the London Olympics may think twice before hitting send following the first expulsion of an athlete for a racist Twitter remark.

Greek triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was withdrawn from the London Olympics on Wednesday after causing an uproar in her home nation for a tweet about West Nile mosquitoes and the number of Africans in Greece.

Her expulsion was expected to act as a warning to other athletes who, along with Olympic organizers, are trying to find the best way to harness the power of social media that has exploded since the 2008 Beijing Games.

“The fact that this has happened will make other athletes feel more cautious about what they put out there,” said Re- becca Hopkins, managing director of sports PR agency ENS Ltd that handles crisis media management.

“It is always very difficult to impose a limit on freedom of speech but the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has set down the guidelines and the athletes have to comply.”

Since the Beijing Olympics, the number of Facebook users has surged to 900 million from 100 million and Twitter has 140 million users having only just emerged in 2008.

Competitors may write “first-person, diary-type” entries but should not act as reporters, and social media activity must respect the Olympic Charter which condemns any discrimination. Vulgar or obscene words or images were also ruled out.