Aussie track star Ollie Hoare reveals shocking social media abuse at the Paris Games: ‘I should have deleted Instagram’
- Ollie Hoare faced gross online abuse during the Paris Games
- 1500m runner says comments affected his performance
- Says he should have deleted Instagram before the Olympics
Middle-distance runner Ollie Hoare has revealed the shocking abuse he received on social media during the Paris Olympics, saying he should have deleted Instagram before the event.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist finished third in the 1500m series and the race that followed was also disappointing.
His campaign for the Paris Olympics is now over and he says he has faced the most online abuse since taking part.
“That (heat) was a terrible race and I got offended on Instagram so I deleted it,” he said.
‘I probably should have deleted Instagram before I went to the village, but I miss my friends. It’s an easy way to communicate when you’re not living at home.
‘So that was tough. I think that affected me a little bit, I didn’t sleep that well.’
The runner admitted to receiving direct messages from trolls as well as horrible comments on photos.
“If I have a bad race or something goes wrong, it can happen and I just have to tell him to fuck off,” he said.
Middle-distance runner Ollie Hoare says he received online abuse during the Paris Games
Hoare says he regrets not deleting Instagram before the Olympics started
“They don’t know 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’s not.”
Former Australian swimmer James Magnussen said he was surprised Hoare used social media before his race.
“I’ll give you a tip, the week of your race you log out and give your manager the login details. They post the content and read and respond to all the comments,” Magnussen said on the Matty & The Missile Podcast.
‘Reading other people’s comments on social media and getting completely upset on the day of your race is something only a very young or inexperienced athlete would do.
Hoare said he received direct messages from online trolls
“I’m very surprised that this happened here.”
Meanwhile, the Aussie Bree Masters’ thrilling 100m campaign came to an end in the semi-finals against a strong field including winner Julien Alfred of St Lucia (10.84) and reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson (10.89).
Masters finished seventh in the semi-final with a time of 11.34, slightly slower than she ran in the opening round.