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World Athletics has revealed findings of social media abuse targeted at athletes during the 2024 Paris Olympic games with US being most targeted as two unnamed athletes in particular suffer the brunt of the abuse.
In an era where athletes often share their journeys and connect with fans online, abuse on social media platforms remains a significant concern.
A recent study from World Athletics, published on October 31 as World Mental Health Month comes to an end, has once again spotlighted this issue.
The latest study was conducted during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and monitored the social media activity of 1,917 athletes with active accounts on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
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This sample size was twelve times larger than that of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, covering a more comprehensive spectrum of the athletic community.
World Athletics revealed that the Threat Matrix service, powered by AI flagged 34,040 of the total 355,873 posts and comments captured for possible abuse, which were then reviewed by human analysts.
Of the flagged content, 809 posts were confirmed as abusive, with 48% of those posts containing racist or sexualized comments.
Racism alone constituted 18% of the abusive content, while sexualized abuse accounted for 30%, with female athletes particularly subjected to a mixture of sexist and sexual comments.
Two athletes whom the governing body did not reveal bore the brunt of the abuse, collectively accounting for 82% of the offensive posts, which highlights the disproportionate targeting of some individuals.
The abuse was not limited to a single country as athletes from 20 nations faced hostility, with U.S. athletes enduring the most significant share.
Nearly half of all the abusive messages were directed at U.S. athletes, despite them representing only 7.8% of the athletes in the study.
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In response to the findings, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe emphasized the harmful impact of social media abuse on athletes’ mental well-being and performance.
“It is no secret that social media abuse towards athletes can have a devastating impact on their mental health as well as their performance,” Coe stated.
“We will continue our work in this space and use our research to help drive positive change, both with platforms and in developing resources for athletes around their mental health.”
He also highlighted the importance of social media for athletes’ interactions with fans and sponsorship obligations, adding that athletes should be able to share their lives and grow their sport without fear of abuse.
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Of the 809 abusive posts, 128 were escalated to the relevant platforms for further action, and two particularly severe cases were referred to higher authorities.
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