Social media abuse throws 1500m runner Olli Hoare of his mark
1500m runner Olli Hoare has revealed the extent of the vicious online hate he has received throughout the Paris Games, with the social media abuse throwing him off his game.
Athletics
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Commonwealth Games champion Olli Hoare has revealed he was the target of vicious online abuse after he finished third last in his 1500m heat - leading to another disappointing performance in the next round.
Hoare faded badly in his opening heat on Friday and was given another chance to qualify for the semi-finals via the new repechage round - but was again chased down.
The result brought his Paris Olympics campaign to a premature end.
After the race, a devastated Hoare admitted he had been affected by online abuse he received on Instagram after the heat.
“That (heat) was a terrible race and I’ve been abused on Instagram so I did delete it,” he said.
“I probably should have deleted Instagram before I went into the village but I miss my friends. It’s an easy way of communication when you’re not living at home.
“So that was tough. I think that kind of affected me a little bit, I haven’t slept great.”
He said the abuse had been sent in direct messages and even in the comments on a picture of his girlfriend, and he would use the experience as a lesson heading into future races.
“If I have a bad race or if something goes wrong there could be a possibility of that happening and I have to just tell it to piss off,” he said.
“They don’t know that I couldn’t walk in November, they don’t know what a lot of athletes go through and sometimes it’s their day, sometimes it isn’t.”
Bree Masters, speaking after finishing seventh in her semi-final of the 100m behind Julien Alfred, said she had learned to block out the hate messages.
“I’ve been I’ve been on social media for a lot of years now and I’ve been doing it as a job,” Masters said.
“And yeah, you get hate messages, you get really nice messages. And you just kind of got to block out the nasty ones.”
She said most comments come from people she doesn’t know, and she’s able to ignore them.
“I just kind of put it aside and I’m very focused on me and pleasing the people that support me, like my family and my friends and my coaches,” she said.
“And if I’ve done them proud, that’s all that matters to me.
“I don’t really take comments from people I don’t know on social media.”
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