It is hard to believe that it’s already been a couple of weeks since the Fab Five won GOLD for the USA in gymnastics, Team USA dominated the relays in track and field, Misty May and Kerri Walsh had a GOLD threepeat in beach volleyball, and Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever. Here is a re-cap of my favorite things about the Olympics.. Social media wise, of course.
1. Celebrity/Musician and Athlete interaction: I don’t think I closed Twitter for the two weeks during the Olympics, and I was constantly reading Olympic tweets. My favorite part about my news-feed was the Olympians interacting with musicians of celebrities. The Kardashians were interacting with everyone, as their step-father/father Bruce Jenner was at the Olympics re-living his glory days. Justin Bieber interacted a lot with Jordyn Weiber, and Lady Gaga and McKayla Maroney had a 5 or 6 tweet conversation about Gaga possibly becoming an Olympic athlete (until Gaga commented that it would take 5 years to make her outfit for the games, of course). A lot of celebs and musicians congratulated Michael Phelps on his legendary win, including Lil’ Wayne, President Obama, and countless others. President Obama even called the Fab Five in London to congratulate them, and he did the same for Phelps. Another awesome perk about being an Olympic athlete: Linkin Park contacted the US Olympic Committee and set up all the Olympic athletes with free tickets to whatever show they wanted to attend on this summer’s Honda Civic Tour. Guess it pays to be an Olympic champion!
2. Olympic Instagrams: If you didn’t know, I’m obsessed with Instagram. So many Olympians, including the Fierce 5, Misty May and Kerri Walsh, Nastia Luikin and Shawn Johnson, Usain Bolt, Natalie Coughlin. Not only have we been seeing pictures posted throughout the Olympics, but Instagram now gives the internet population a gateway into these Olympian’s private lives like we have never had before. Before social sharing, the American population has been Googling articles about Olympians, or simply forgetting about them after the Olympics. Due to Facebook Fan pages, Instagram, and Twitter, we can follow them throughout their life. And since social media is world-wide, we can keep up with our favorite international athletes as well!
3. Really Really Photos: My favorite twitter account was by far the London 2012 Pool Cam, which showed high-resolution images of the water sports.. from underwater. From the photo above, you can see how cool the images are, and the best part is that it is an unconventional way to showcase swimming.
That concludes my favorites from the London 2012 Olympics. I really enjoyed everything about the 2012 Social Olympics, and I know that Rio 2016 won’t disappoint! Next up: Sochi 2014. It will be interesting to see how the winter sports are portrayed in a couple of years, and also interesting to see how social media will change by then!
Abbey Dufoe 