Olympic Athlete Banned For Tweet, Voula Papachristou

July 26, 2012

200 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jul 26, 2012
Voula Papachristou ‘bitter and upset’ over Olympic ban

On Wednesday, Voula Papachristou became the first athlete to be banned from the Olympics for a message that she posted on Twitter.

On Thursday, the 23-year-old triple jumper from Greece sounded off about her emotions since the ruling.

“I have not slept at all and to be honest I am still trying to come to terms with what has happened,” she told Reuters. “I am trying to stay calm otherwise I would lose control.

“I am thankful to my coach and family and so many other people who have stuck by me…. After so many years of hurt and sacrifices to try and get to my first Olympics I am very bitter and upset. But what has upset me the most is the excessive reaction and speed of the disciplinary decision.

“I don’t know if they want to make an example out of me because of my profile, this is for others to judge, but what I believe is that they used their maximum disciplinary power on me for this,” Papachristou said. “They went straight to the final stage in excluding me from the team, which was highly excessive.”