During the 2012 London Olympic Games it seemed as if often the news headlines were about Twitter rather than the actual event. It's almost as if Twitter was one of the Olympic sponsors, because they were constantly in the headlines, they were making the news, and people were using that platform to announce the winners of the events before they were televised on NBC, a company that paid a tremendous amount of money to be the official news outlet for the Olympic Games.
Yes, there were other challenges as well, there were athletes who were Tweeting things which were not politically correct, some were actually discharged from the Olympic Games, or kicked off their nation's Olympic teams even though Twitter is a personal and private account for each of the athletes if they choose to participate on that platform. In essence the Olympic Committee and the Olympic teams are censoring free speech in a world of political correctness. One would have to ask if that is fair.
Further, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on August 1, 2012 titled "Twitter's Olympic Run," by Shira Ovide and Christopher S Stewart where one of the athletes said that she didn't think it was fair that she couldn't Tweet about the shoes she was wearing, the uniform she was wearing, or the types of food she was eating. She thought that should be acceptable, because she has worked for many years to get to this point, and she hopes to get a sponsor if she can win a medal during the Olympics.
Sponsors obviously would look favorably on an athlete who mentioned their product by name sometime during the Olympics. Of course, many people want to keep the Olympics completely an amateur sporting event. However that's simply not possible, look at the US basketball Olympic team, almost everyone on it is a professional, and many of them are making in excess of $10 million per year. It seems as if we have double standards, and archaic rules concerning the Olympic Games.
As fans, we want to see the best of humanity compete, and the best people to win. If we prevent athletes from free speech, and remember many of these athletes are high strung individuals who have worked their entire life to get to where they are, taking away their dream is just about as unfair as anything they could possibly have said on their private Twitter account, which in actuality should be none of anyone's business, in a perfect world that is.
Indeed, you might have different thoughts and feelings on this, and I would invite your opinions as well. Either way, it is something we must discuss, because it matters.
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