Swimmer Cameron McEvoy hit by earthquake, Twitter hacker in Japan

SWIMMER Cameron McEvoy has endured a nightmare 24 hours in Japan after experiencing an earthquake in his hotel room before waking to find his Twitter account hacked.

GOLD Coast Olympic swim star Cameron McEvoy has endured a nightmare 24 hours in Japan after experiencing a magnitude five earthquake in his hotel room before waking to find his Twitter account hacked.

McEvoy posted a video on his Instagram account yesterday, filmed during a Monday earthquake outside of Tokyo, and said he could feel his entire building “swaying” during the incident.

“A magnitude 5 earthquake occurred near Tokyo last night. This was my room on the top floor of my hotel. The video doesn’t do it justice for how much the building was swaying,” McEvoy said.

I'm extremely sorry about the hack on my Twitter page and thankyou to everyone who went out of their way to tell me. #DownsideOfTechnology

— Cameron McEvoy (@CameronMcEvoy) May 16, 2016

He was the only Australian swimmer in Tokyo at the time, with the Campbell sisters and James Magnussen among the 13 other members of the 2016 Olympic team set to join him today ahead of the Japan Open race meet starting Friday.

But it was the least disturbing moment of McEvoy’s time in Tokyo as he woke yesterday morning to see somebody had changed the profile photo and name on his Twitter account before sending a tweet of a topless woman to his 11,000 followers.

The offending tweet was only on his account for a short period, with Swimming Australia immediately having it removed by Twitter and McEvoy quickly apologising to his followers.

“I’m extremely sorry about the hack on my Twitter page and thank you to everyone who went out of their way to tell me. #DownsideOfTechnology,” McEvoy wrote on Twitter.

AOC media director Mike Tancred said all Olympians were warned about the perils of social media and how easy it was to have their accounts hacked.

“We have got some processes in place here because we know it’s going to happen,” he said.

“I think that McEvoy realised he had been hacked and acted pretty quickly.”

AOC social media director Andrew Reid said athletes were all given protocols on how to reduce the risk of hacking and the Olympic team had developed relationships with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to ensure the quick removal of offensive posts during the Olympic Games.

■ QUEENSLAND sailor Jake Lilley has beaten Oliver Tweddell to secure an Olympic sailing debut in the Finn Class.

Originally published as Swimmer Cameron McEvoy hit by earthquake, Twitter hacker in Japan