In less than two weeks, the eyes of the world will be on Paris, France, as the 2024 Olympic Games begin. Records will be broken, some dreams will be made while others dashed, and no doubt a few athletes will engage in more than just spirited competition. In the era of social media, even a slight misstep can be costly—and not just during competitions.
The wrong tweets, posts, likes, or shares could cost athletes big time. Competitors need to be their absolute best during their event, but also on their best behavior—before and after the games!
“As in all walks of life these days whatever an athlete posts is going to be seen by millions of people,” warned Adrien Bouchet, Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation Endowed chair within the College of Business at the University of Central Florida.
“These are athletes that have national and international followers,” said Bouchet. “The International Olympic Committee recently released Social media guidelines for the games that tried to strike a balance between the Games and the individual athlete’s rights. It’s worth remembering that the vast majority of athletes don’t get in trouble for posting controversial posts but it only takes one.”
Bouchet points to Ryan Lockte’s behavior during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. He and other members of the U.S. swim team found themselves in hot water after claiming they were robbed at gunpoint, when in reality they had gotten into a confrontation with security guards, whom they paid off. Lochte lost four major sponsors in the fallout.
“That wasn’t a wrong social media post but it’s a similar scenario involving a gold medal-winning athlete behavior badly and suffering significant consequences,” suggested Bouchet.
Too Quick To Post
It is all too common for individuals to post something only to regret it. For the competitors, especially those who shine out above the rest, all the eyes are on everything they say and do.
“Part of the problem is the result of how our brains our wired.’The Negativity Bias’ is a cognitive bias—not learned, but hard-wired—in which we pay more attention to and remember negative information more easily than positive information,” explained public relations professional Laura Graham, faculty member at North Carolina Central University. “This bias can be useful since it’s more likely that negative things equal danger and hurt to be avoided, but our brains don’t immediately distinguish between emergency and non-emergency data.”
As a result, we’re more likely today to remember the one dumb thing a famous person said or did over everything else, including their time atop the podium.
“Another issue is the economics of the Olympic Games,” said Graham. “In America, the Olympics are a billion-dollar industry, and there’s a symbiotic relationship among the athletes and their corporate and national sponsors. Teams and athletes are marketed as surrogates for our nation’s self-esteem and are told they are carrying the hopes and dreams of 300 million people with them. So when an athlete has a bad day, makes a bad decision, or says something stupid on X/Twitter, the stakes are incredibly high.”
Athletes Will Make Mistakes
It is easy to think of Olympic athletes as being almost “superhuman” but even the “greatest of all time” is still a human, who will make mistakes. They could also be held to an unrealistic standard.
“This is the opposite side of using social media to build your brand,” said Bouchet. “We put them on a pedestal and expect them to be great athletes and model citizens and it doesn’t always work out. So yes they are held to a higher standard than the average person. That is the life they chose.”
Of course, the athletes also explicitly represent their countries, and therefore do bear responsibility for how their actions reflect on those who send them.
“When you wear the USA across your chest, what you do reflects on all of those people who sent you and who are watching from home,” added Graham. “Charles Barkley famously said he wasn’t a role model—but if he’s on the USA Olympic team, he is a representative.”
Finally, it should be remembered too that many of the athletes traveling to Paris aren’t old enough to drink in the United States, and some can’t even vote yet. The wrong post shouldn’t end their professional athletic careers.
“If one cultural gaffe or ignorant faux pas is the end for some 16-year-old on their first trip abroad, that’s not sending the right message either,” Graham continued. “The problem is that the athletes aren’t fictional characters, but real people.”
