The celebration of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has left us a great global interaction on social networks about everything that happened at the Olympic event. This aspect also refers not only to sports competitions, but also to numerous episodes and claims of causes and social problems that have had more visibility if possible at the Olympic event thanks to athletes.
SAMY, the alliance of expert agencies in social listening and data has released this Thursday in a study the impact that the most important moments that have taken place throughout the Olympic event have had on social networks.
This study highlights, for example, the relevance that the subject of mental health has had in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Simone Biles, the great world figure in gymnastics, to the complete team competition after competing in an element and to the individual competition arguing that she suffered from mental health problems It has been a very powerful loudspeaker to give visibility to a problem so frequent but at the same time so little commented on that it has generated a great debate on social networks with all kinds of points of view.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have also served as a vindication for the LGTBIQ + collective, which had its peak with the conquest of Olympic gold in synchronized jumps on a 10-meter platform by the Britishor Tom Daley, who celebrated his title in this way giving visibility to the homosexual community. “I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion. I feel very powerful about it because when I was young I felt that I would never achieve anything because of who I was.” Another common image of Daley was seeing him crocheting while cheering for his teammates in other competitions.
The Spanish walker Marc Tur, fourth in the 50-kilometer march test, he also gave visibility to the group after touching the medal. “I am openly gay, I am not one of the first homosexual Olympians to recognize it, nor do I hope to be one of the last by giving more visibility to the group. They helped me to break with my insecurities, my fears and taught me to fight for what I want regardless of the rest, “he wrote on his social networks.
The Tokyo Olympics have also set an example for future generations with the premiere of disciplines such as surfing, where the Brazilian Italo Ferreira managed to proclaim himself the first Olympic champion after being born in a humble fishing village, and skateboarding, where the stories of the Brazilian Rayssa Leal went viral, silver in the street modality, with the youngest Olympic champion in history, the Japanese Momiji Nishiya, or the hug between all the participants of the Park modality to console a rival after failing in her final exercise.
Social networks have also become an engine of encouragement for many of the athletes, who have also been sharing through these channels how their day to day at the Olympic Games was through not only Twitter, but other platforms like Instagram. YouTube or TikTok. Several of these examples are the videos published by Tom Daley on YouTube, the congratulations and recognition of Pau Gasol to all the Spanish medalists through his Twitter account or the curious story of the Australian canoeist Jessica Fox, who showed through TikTok how he repaired a fault in his canoe with a condom before getting the Olympic bronze. According to the SAMY study, the official accounts of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Weibo have generated nearly 3.7 billion interactions through the official profile of the Olympic Games, in addition to 3 billion views of videos about the Olympic spirit.
The Tokyo Olympic Games have also left images that reflect the true Olympic spirit and the values of sport, such as the hug starring the participants of the women’s skateboarding park event, the hug of her rivals to the South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker after winning the gold and achieving the world record in the 200 meters breaststroke, the beautiful gesture of Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi in the high jump final to share the Olympic gold, or the joy and the embrace of the Spanish Ana Peleteiro, bronze in triple jump, to her friend, the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, after winning the Olympic gold and beating the world record of the modality.
The celebration of the Olympic Games has also allowed many athletes to be known beyond the border of their country and have even become real stars in other countries. This is the case of the Spanish karateka Damián Quintero, a silver medalist in the men’s kata competition after the Japanese Ryo Kiyuna who, in addition to starring in a beautiful image with Kiyuna himself at the closing ceremony, also wanted to share messages of affection and affection that he had received from many fans in Japan.
The Olympic Games also left us with numerous viral moments such as the anger of Novak Djokovic during his match for the bronze in tennis against Pablo Carreño, which was the subject of many months, or the eccentric celebration of the Australian coach Dean Boxall after the Olympic gold of his pupil Ariarne Titmus in the 400-meter freestyle test ahead of Katie Ledecky. Moments that are also part of the history of the Olympic Games in which social networks have been one of the most important engines for its dissemination and participation of fans in the absence of public in the stands.