Social Media To Be Challenged At Olympics

Renton High graduate and will be Tweeting and posting about her experience in London. But Thurmond and the thousands of athletes from around the world must follow rules as set by the International Olympics Committee.

Don't expect Thurmond or any athletes to provide specific locations, talk about any breaking news, information about participants or about other events including the happenings inside the Olympic Village as recently shared by USA women's goalie Hope Solo. This will also be the first year volunteers will be allowed to post social media happenings, but they too must also follow the same guidelines as the athletes.

However they can post photos, video and audio of their experience.

The IOC says will monitor Olympic on-line content to ensure that the integrity of rights-holding broadcasters and sponsor rights as well as the Olympic Charter is maintained. The IOC asks for the support of all participants and other accredited persons in halting any ambush activity or any sites engaged in conduct which is offensive to or adversely affects the goodwill associated with the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement. The IOC asks that participants and other accredited people who notice unauthorised content should report it immediately to www.olympicgamesmonitoring.com.

Each athlete and volunteer who chooses to go public with any comments, opinions and any other material, including online posting, blogging or tweeting will be held responsible. Its not known what the punishment will be for those who break the rules; however, according to an article in The Huffington Post, tripple jumper Voula Papachristou was recently expelled from the Greek Olympic Team for her twitter comment, “With so many Africans in Greece… At least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!!!” 

Although these athletes are representing their country, we're talking about their personal social media accounts. How do you feel about the restrictions?

You can send well wishes to Thurmond as she goes for the gold in London. Day one of the discus is August 4 with finals on August 5.

Click here to access Thurmond's Twitter feed and Thurmond's Facebook page.

Here are some other website you can follow to keep up on all the action:

• The Olympic Athletes Hub - provides an excellent way to monitor both Facebook and Twitter sites. Find an athlete, sport or team and it pulls up their sites.
• Other Twitter feeds to follow:
• @nbcolympics
• @olympicvillage