Olympic athletes have to be careful about what they post on social media

In lower than two weeks, the eyes of the world will turn to Paris, France, because the 2024 Olympic Games begin. Records might be broken, some dreams will come true, some might be shattered, and little doubt some athletes will deliver greater than just spirited competition. In the age of social media, even a small misstep will be costly—and not only in competition.

The flawed tweets, posts, likes or shares can cost athletes dearly. Participants must give their best through the competition, but in addition show their best side before and after the games!

“As in all areas of life today, everything an athlete posts is seen by millions of people,” warned Adrien Bouchet, Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation Endowed Chair within the College of Business at University of Central Florida.

“These are athletes who have national and international followings,” Bouchet said. “The International Olympic Committee recently published social media guidelines for the Games that try to strike a balance between the Games and the rights of individual athletes. It’s important to remember that the vast majority of athletes don’t get in trouble for posting controversial posts, but it only takes one.”

Bouchet points to the behavior of Ryan Lockte through the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He and other members of the U.S. swim team got into trouble after claiming they were robbed at gunpoint when in point of fact that they had gotten into an altercation with security guards who had bribed them. Lochte lost 4 major sponsors because of this.

“This was not a false social media post, but it is a similar scenario where a gold medalist behaves badly and suffers significant consequences,” Bouchet said.

Too fast to post

It’s all too common for people to post something after which regret it. Competitors, especially those that stand out from the remainder, have all eyes on every little thing they are saying and do.

“Part of the problem is the result of the way our brains are wired. ‘The negativity bias’ is a cognitive distortion – not learned, but hard-wired – in which we pay more attention to and remember negative information more easily than positive information,” explained public relations expert Laura Graham, a school member on the North Carolina Central University“This bias can be useful because negative things are more likely to represent dangers and injuries that need to be avoided, but our brains don’t immediately distinguish between emergency and non-emergency data.”

For this reason, we at the moment are more prone to remember the one silly thing a star said or did greater than anything – including their time on the rostrum.

“Another issue is the economics of the Olympics,” Graham said. “In America, the Olympics are a billion-dollar industry, and there is a symbiotic relationship between the athletes and their corporate and national sponsors. Teams and athletes are marketed as a surrogate for our nation’s self-esteem and are told that they carry the hopes and dreams of 300 million people. 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 make mistakes

You might think that Olympic athletes are almost “superhuman,” but even the “greatest of all time” are still human and make mistakes. They, too, are held to unrealistic standards.

“This is the opposite of using social media to build a brand,” Bouchet said. “We put them on a pedestal and expect them to be great athletes and model citizens, but that doesn’t always work out. So they’re held to a higher standard than the average citizen. This is the life they’ve chosen.”

Of course, the athletes also explicitly represent their countries and subsequently bear a responsibility for the sunshine their actions shed on those that send them.

“When you wear the USA on your chest, what you do reflects all the people who sent you and who are watching from home,” Graham added. “Charles Barkley once said he’s not a role model – but when he’s on the U.S. Olympic team, he’s a representative.”

Finally, it will be important to do not forget that lots of the athletes traveling to Paris will not be sufficiently old to drink alcohol within the United States, and a few will not be even allowed to vote. The flawed contribution mustn’t mean the tip of their skilled sports profession.

“If a cultural faux pas or an ignorant faux pas spells doom for a 16-year-old on his first trip abroad, that doesn’t send the right message either,” Graham continued. “The problem is that the athletes are not fictional characters, they are real people.”