ON
July 25, 2012
The 2012 London Olympics begin this weekend, and this is going to be one event that you are going to want to follow on Twitter for several reasons, the least of which is to make fun of the synchronized swimming!
First, although Twitter was around for the 2008 games, it was still in its infancy. Twitter is a mature product now with over 500 million users.
Second, Twitter is an application that is truly global. Anyone with a cell phone can use the service. You will see tweets from around the world as people in every country on Earth root for their favorite athletes. Superbowl XLVI (46, for those of you who don’t speak “Roman”) nearly brought Twitter to its knees with over 12,000 tweets per second. And that was for an American sporting event! Can you imagine how many tweets will be flying around during a global spectacle? This is what makes Twitter so cool!
Third, there are some very interesting, and entertaining, athletes to follow this year. Here is just a sampling of whom to follow:
- Lolo Jones is honest, hilarious, tweets often, and is a world class hurdler for the United States. Follow her at https://twitter.com/lolojones
- Ricky Berens, The American swimmer, uses lighthearted tweets and frequent interactions with fans on Twitter which helped him pick up sponsors like BMW and Got Chocolate Milk! Follow at https://twitter.com/RickyBerens
- Jordan Burroughs. A wrestler for the United States, Burroughs’ frequent updates, enthusiasm and humor have helped him rack up more than 20,000 followers. https://twitter.com/alliseeisgold
- LeBron James. @KingJames. Gotta love the handle! Perhaps the 2012 Olympics’ biggest celebrity. Always entertaining (unless you live in Cleveland!) https://twitter.com/KingJames
- Natalie Coughlin is hilarious on Twitter. And she is a really good swimmer for Team USA, to boot! Follow her at https://twitter.com/NatalieCoughlin
- Matthew Mitcham. Star diver for Australia, Mitcham is one of the games’ few high profile openly gay competitors. Follow Matthew at https://twitter.com/Matthew_Mitcham
- Hope Solo is one heck-of-a soccer (football for the rest of the world) player for the USA as our main goalie. Read her tweets at https://twitter.com/HopeSolo
- Ryan Lochte, probably the biggest competitor for swimmer Michael Phelps, will certainly have a Lochte (sorry, bad pun) to say. https://twitter.com/RyanLochte
- Oscar Pistorious. You’ve probably seen him on TV. This dude runs on blades, not legs! Enough said! He has more than 50,000 followers. https://twitter.com/OscarPistorius
- Eamon Sullivan. Australian swimmer with a wicked sense of humor. Actually posted a picture once of a team mate while sleeping with mouth agape! God only knows what he will post from the Olympic Village! https://twitter.com/Eamon_Sullivan
Of course don’t forget to search out terms with hashtags (#) to find information and news to your liking. A few suggestions: #London2012 is the official London 2012 summer Olympic Game hashtag. #GoTeamUSA is the official hashtag for the US Olympic team. Me, I’ll probably do a lot of searching for #Sharapova. Hey, I could be a tennis fan!
