On the heels of Swimming Australia’s announcement that it has extended Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren’s contract through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has released an official stance regarding social media for its Olympic athletes.
In an athlete-focused briefing session that took place in Sydney yesterday, the AOC reviewed key issues, such as anti-doping, security and camaraderie, but the subject of social media was also specifically addressed. The tag phrase “tweet or compete” embodies the AOC’s stance that athletes think long and hard about whether they want to engage in social media in a time when their country’s medals, as well as their individual careers, are potentially on the line.
During the session, two Olympic athletes, 100m hurdles gold medalist Sally Pearson and track cycling gold medalist Anna Meares, discussed their decisions in 2012 to “turn off all social media accounts upon arrival at the athletes’ village.” Their strategy in doing so was to avoid negative public feedback and instead focus solely on their competitive tasks at hand.
Their decision was in stark contrast to that of Emily Seebohm, who acknowledged that her social media interactions may well have cost her the 100m backstroke gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games. In earning silver after having been the favorite headed into the London Olympics, Seebohm stated, “I don’t know, I just felt like I didn’t really get off [social media] and get into my own mind. I obviously need to sign out of Twitter and logout of Facebook a lot sooner than I did.”
The AOC has ultimately left the decision to engage in social media up to the individual athletes, however, Australia’s Chef de Mission, Kitty Chiller, offers a warning. “Our athletes in London didn’t understand, and we didn’t understand either, the dangers or the distraction. We were worried about what people might say [online], but we weren’t concerned about the distraction. We now know that.”
The identification of such an issue further supports the entire Australian Olympic hopeful contingent as being “all-in” for the Rio Olympic Games. Even with the stellar streak of the Australian swimming team, especially the women’s side in the form of Seebohm, Cate and Bronte Campbell, Jessica Ashwood and others, the team is still looking for ways to keep the athletes at the top of their game when the world’s biggest competition is upon us.
Great article, and Seebom is a total hottie!
They’re dumb people, those Australians
Wow! What great intellect you have!!
the fact that seebohm blamed her silver medal on the fact that she didn’t turn her social media off is honestly the biggest BS I’ve heard in a while. Unless she was checking her twitter feed within like 20 minutes of the race, I don’t think this is remotely a viable excuse.
But DID she blame it on that alone ? Sorry but no ! She’s mentioned it as an illustration of how she wasn’t nearly as focused as she should have been. She was also at the forefront of those who spoke out about the “toxic” team atmosphere as evidenced with the misconduct/disruptive behavior from some of the men’s team. I think she’s also given credit to Missy Franklin for pulling out the big swim when it counted.