How Twitter Reacted to 2012 Summer Olympics

Now that the dust has settled over Olympic Park in London, it’s time to reflect on the games of 2012. This year, the games were seen by billions of people each day from around the world as nations cheered on their country’s athletic representatives as they competed fiercely in an attempt to return home with bronze, silver or gold.

Social media played a key role in the 2012 Olympics with athletes, supporters, families and fans posting news of great athlete feats on Facebook and Twitter. Olympic fever spread on Twitter during the two weeks of the London games with everything from congratulations to random observations. Many well known stars posted regular tweets on Twitter declaring to their followers their undying support for their favorite athletes with some even asking favorite Olympians for some tips after the games.

The athletes themselves took to Twitter to share their glory and to build their brands. Many athletes at the games had their laptops or mobile devices with them so that they could keep family, friends and fans updated with breaking news on everything from their physical condition to their training sessions to the events they participated in. The USOC or United States Olympic Committee said that at least 89 athletes were active on Twitter during the games and according to the USOC, their goal was to tell amazing stories using as many platforms as possible.

During the Summer Games in Beijing four years ago, the use of social network sites was frowned upon by the International Olympic Committee or IOC. This was because it was determined not to be fair as only some athletes had permission to take part in social networking. Athletes who were blogging and using social media in Beijing had to agree not to publish anything negative about the host country, not surprisingly.
Today the IOC looks at social media networking as a perfectly legitimate type of personal communication. The committee granted Olympic participants the right to use Twitter and other social media sites during this year’s summer games. However, athletes are told by the IOC that they must only use social media and their blogs to send messages about their own personal experiences and not to act as reporters.

Twitter did indeed play a key role at the 2012 Summer Olympic games. On day one at the opening ceremony, there were already more tweets posted about the games than there were during the entire 2008 Olympic games. On Twitter’s official blog, the feature story for the week of July 24th was Spotlight on Olympic Stories. Twitter stated then that it was going to put a focus on the incredible stories which were sure to come forward out of the games and It also publically announced  to American sports fans that it was partnering with NBC Olympics – the official broadcaster of the event to create an event page on Twitter for the 2012 games. The page was designed to highlight tweets from participants, coaches, teams, loved ones, fans and Olympic insiders.

This article is written by Cynthia Rupp.rt on twitter

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Usain Bolt wins 200m gold – then grabs pro photographer’s DSLR to snap some pics

You'd have thought Usain Bolt would've had other things on his mind seconds after becoming the first athlete in history to retain the Olympic 100 meter and 200 meter titles, but no, the charismatic character still found a moment to entertain, this time by grabbing a camera from a professional photographer and taking a few pics himself.

When superstar athlete Usain Bolt comes to hang up his running shoes, there’s a chance he might turn to photography for his next career.

Following his storming run to his second gold at the London Olympics – this one in the 200 meters – the Jamaican sprinter grabbed a Nikon DSLR off one of the trackside professional photographers and proceeded to take a few shots himself.

After getting some pics of fellow countryman and sprinter Yohan Blake, Bolt turned the camera on the huddle of trackside pro snappers, which included the owner of the camera, Jimmy Wixtröm.

Wixtröm, who shoots for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, can be seen grinning broadly in one of Bolt’s pictures (below), no doubt thinking, “Wait till I tell the picture editor about this.”

Interviewed by his paper after Bolt’s shenanigans, Wixtröm described the superhuman sprinter as “charming” and said he was a “pretty good” photographer.

He also revealed that for several days prior to the 200 meters final, he’d been pestering Bolt for a decent photo opportunity. Bolt kept declining to pose for Wixtröm, and instead promised him he’d get his picture after the final. The runner certainly delivered on that front.

Now Wixtröm is in possession of one very special memory card, and one that will probably never be formatted again.

Check out all the post-race shots, by both Wixtröm and Bolt, over at Aftonbladet.

[via PetaPixel: images by Jimmy Wixtröm and Usain Bolt]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com