Greek triple-jumper Voula Papachristou was banned from the London Olympics yesterday, after a thoughtless “joke” over Twitter was considered racist and in violation of the International Olympic Committee guidelines.
Our access logs experienced a lot of interest in photos of Voula Papachristou, whose apology came too late to save her from banishment; the Greek Olympic Committee’s decision was final.
Meanwhile, at least 15,000 Greeks are supporting Voula Papachristou on a Facebook page, created to voice their opposition to the banishment. Some comments attack the Greek government and the Greek Olympic Committee directly:
“The Hellenic Olympic committee is run by complete idiots. You should be ashamed of yourselves for ruining the dream of an athlete who made a stupid joke which in no way advocated violence or demeaned anyone or any ethnicity (not a racist joke). As far as I know Greece is theoretically a democracy still so any citizen is entitled to support any legal political party no matter “your” political views. I really hope she sues the committee for infringing on her constitutional freedoms of political affiliation and freedom of speech. Shame on all of you for your conduct against this athlete.”
In other news, someone registered VoulaPapachristou.com and is offering it for sale, a clearly stupid example of cybersquatting.
Enjoy some fine pictures of Voula Papachristou and a video!
