Witty posts from sofa earn movie star a Rio invite

ELITE athletes dedicate years of training in reaching the Olympics, but US comedian Leslie Jones has been summoned to Rio after just a few days from lazing on her sofa.

The Saturday Night Live and new Ghostbusters star has been watching the Summer Games from her living room and hilariously live-tweeting almost every event – earning her a call-up to join the Games’ coverage for NBC.

Since Friday, Jones has become a viral sensation with a series of short smartphone clips – sometimes in awe of the athletes’s prowess, other times bemused by some of the more obscure sports and passionately yelling her support for Team USA.

The comedian-actress started with a video of herself dancing, in Stars-and-Stripes leggings and a matching sleeveless top, draped in the US flag and wearing plastic gold medals.

NBC Olympics producer Jim Bell saw her feed and responded: “You’re officially invited to Rio as a family member. Want to come?”

Jones’s coverage of the Games marks a triumphant comeback to Twitter after she quit the network in June – devastated by a torrent of racist and sexist abuse aimed at her by trolls angry that the Ghostbusters remake had replaced the original male cast with women.

From Friday, Jones will attend live swimming, track and field, gymnastics, and beach volleyball, meeting athletes and communicating her passion for the Olympics on air and online, NBC said.

“Damn, I need five TVs, I can’t catch every event!” she tweeted when she was into the swing of things on Saturday.

The support from Team USA’s superfan has not gone unnoticed by the athletes, who are drawing inspiration from her tweets.