Twitter reports that over the 16 days that the Olympic games took place, it saw more than 150 million Tweets being sent about the games on its platform.
The Olympic Games which took place in London, England this year saw South Africa win the most gold medals by any African country and being ranked the best performing African country.
According to a statement by the microblogging platform’s Manager of Editorial Programming, Andrew Fitzgerald, the following were the biggest moments of competition, as measured by Tweets per minute (TPM):
*Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt) of Jamaica wins gold in the 200m sprint: 80,000+ TPM;
*Bolt wins gold in the 100m sprint: 74,000+ TPM;
*Andy Murray (@andy_murray) of Great Britain wins gold in the men’s tennis singles: 57,000+ TPM;
*Jamaica wins gold and sets the world record in the men’s 4×100 relay: 52,000+ TPM;
*Team USA beats Spain to win gold in men’s basketball: 41,000+ TPM.
Although South African athlete, Oscar Pistorius, who is popular known as ‘The Blade Runner’ attracted much attention with his prosthetic legs, it was Usain Bolt who took home the record for being the most talked about athlete of the 2012 Olympics. Apart from Bolt, nine other Olympians garnered more than 1 million Tweets each:
1.Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt)
2. Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps)
3.Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994)
4. Ryan Lochte (@ryanlochte)
5. Gabby Douglas (@gabrielledoug)
6. Andy Murray (@andy_murray)
7. Kobe Bryant (#GetKobeOnTwitter)
8. Yohan Blake (@YohanBlake)
9. Lee Chong Wei (@Lee_C_Wei)
10. LeBron James (@KingJames)
Also interesting is to note that the sport which saw the most Twitter conversation was football, with over 5 million Tweets during the duration of the games.
Finally, the thrill of Olympic sport just wouldn’t be the same without the over-the-top spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies. Both events drove an incredible volume of Twitter conversation, and experienced their own giant spikes in Tweets per minute. Tonight’s Closing Ceremonies didn’t disappoint — with performances by The Who, George Michael and so many more. But it was the Spice Girls who stole the night, inspiring more than 116,000 Tweets per minute.
What was your greatest Olympic moment that you discussed on social media?
