We take a look back at all of the memorable moments of the London Games: the wins, the losses, the drama, and above all, the Tweets.
There were over 150 million Tweets about the Olympics over the past 16 days. That's quite a lot...
The biggest moments of competition, as measured by Tweets per minute (TPM), were:
- 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) wins gold in the men’s tennis singles: 57,000+ TPM
- Jamaica wins gold and sets the world record in the men’s 4x100 relay: 52,000+ TPM
- Team USA beats Spain to win gold in men’s basketball: 41,000+ TPM
The biggest tweeting moments that came during the heat of competition (not at a medal-winning conclusion) included Kobe Bryant’s dunk towards the end of the USA-Spain basketball game, and Hope Solo’s (@HopeSolo) land-diving save in the women’s USA-Japan football match.
In addition to inspiring the biggest conversation spike with his 200m win, Usain Bolt also took home the record for being the most discussed athlete of the Games. But he had company — nine other Olympians garnered more than 1 million Tweets each:
- Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt)
- Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps)
- Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994)
- Ryan Lochte (@ryanlochte)
- Gabby Douglas (@gabrielledoug)
- Andy Murray (@andy_murray)
- Kobe Bryant
- Yohan Blake (@YohanBlake)
- Lee Chong Wei (@Lee_C_Wei)
- LeBron James (@KingJames)
The BBC coverage of the Games has been widely praised, with presenters joining the conversation on Twitter too. We’ve taken a look at who were the most mentioned BBC TV commentators and pundits on Twitter over the course of the Games. Here’s the top five:
- Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker): 27%
- Clare Balding (@ClareBalding1): 17%
- Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey): 12%
- Ian Thorpe (@IanThorpe): 10%
- Steve Redgrave: 7%
- Others: 27%
