‘Joke’ tweet ousts Greek

Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Thursday, Jul. 26, 2012

LONDON -- The Twitter Olympics have begun, and Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou is the first casualty.

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LONDON -- The Twitter Olympics have begun, and Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou is the first casualty.

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This article was published 26/07/2012 (5128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON — The Twitter Olympics have begun, and Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou is the first casualty.

Papachristou has been expelled from the London Games by Greece for her Twitter comments on African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party. Papachristou, 23, from Athens, was to compete in her first Games.

The IOC has strict guidelines on what athletes can say in social media. This is the first case of an athlete being expelled from an Olympics for social media use.

The tweet that got Papachristou in trouble was posted July 22: “So many Africans in Greece at least West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food”

She apologized on Twitter and Facebook. “I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke… I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.

— USA Today