Friday, August 3, 2012

Can you believe that just a week ago we were gearing up for Danny Boyle’s spectacular Opening Ceremony, and @London2012 was about to begin?

Since then we have seen more than 10 million mentions of the word Olympics on Twitter. In fact, there have been more Tweets about the Olympics in a single day than during the entire 2008 Beijing summer Games.

And with over 60% of @TeamGB on Twitter, we have been able to share in the highs and lows of the Games with athletes like never before.

In cycling, we saw the elation of @bradwiggins in the time trials and @Chrishoy’s success in the velodrome, contrast sharply with the heartbreak of @MarkCavendish in the men’s team road race.

Who knew the imagination of the British public would become gripped by athletes such as judo’s @gemma_gibbons or gymnast @louissmith1989, following their every move and sending them Tweets of support?




British diver Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) hit a major Twitter milestone today as he became the UK’s 10th British sports person to reach one million followers. He celebrated with this message for his fans:


He joins an illustrious list which also includes Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney), Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5), Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton), Michael Owen (@themichaelowen), Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter), Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan), Rory Mcilroy (@McilroyRory), Jenson Button (@JensonButton) and Andy Murray (@andy_murray).

It was victory in the velodrome yesterday for Sir Chris Hoy (@chrishoy), as he triumphantly updated his profile to read “Official Twitter page of Sir Chris Hoy, 5 x Olympic Champ track cyclist” after his gold medal win yesterday. What a legend:


We love this picture of his parents celebrating yesterday in the velodrome as he took his fifth Olympic gold:


He also retweeted this fantastic photo of the postbox in his hometown of Edinburgh. @RoyalMail is painting red post boxes gold to celebrate every Team GB and ParalympicsGB gold medal win during the Games:


In fact, @RoyalMail have been giving gold medal athletes the star treatment. Yesterday they unveiled @timbaillie and Etienne Stott on their very own postage stamp:


Finally, one of our favourite moments of the games was captured in this photo. Despite the introduction of Olympic lanes to ferry athletes around the capital, Venezuelan fencing champion Ruben Limardo Gascon — and his gold medal — chose to hang out with some fans on the tube:


The second week of the Games features the track and field events, and a whole host of new athletes to follow on Twitter. Here’s who to watch out for tomorrow:

Men’s 100m: Usain Bolt (@usainbolt) and Tyson Gay (@TysonLGay)
Women’s pole vault: Holly Bleasdale (@HollyBleasdale)
Men’s 10,000m: Mo Farah (@Mo_Farah)
Men’s volleyball: Dami Bakare (@donlybakare)

-- Lewis Wiltshire, @LewisWiltshire

Posted by @ at 8:59 AM