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Greek athlete pulled from Olympic team after tweet

2012-07-26 186 Dailymotion

Just days before the start of the London Olympics, and a Greek triple jumper has been pulled from the national team.<br/> <br />Paraskevi Papachristou was withdrawn after causing an uproar for posting a tweet slammed as racist.<br/> <br />Despite apologising, the 23-year-old will now have to watch the Games from home.<br/> <br />Some have called the punishment extreme. But the International Olympic Committee appeared to support the decision.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE: THE IOC DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, MARK ADAMS, SAYING (English):<br/> <br />"Well clearly this is a matter for the Greek NOC and they take the decision, they presumably felt they were right. All I can say is not commenting on this particular one but clearly if they're breaking the Olympic Charter then that's the right thing to do."<br/> <br />Her expulsion is expected to act as a warning to other athletes to think before they tweet.<br/> <br />Social media users have been urged to stick to the Olympic Charter, which condemns any discrimination.<br/> <br />Imogen Bankier is a badminton player for Team GB.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE: IMOGEN BANKIER, TEAM GB BADMINTON PLAYER, SAYING (English):<br/> <br />"I did actually see that, on Twitter ironically enough. The thing is you have to be careful with the social media side of things - certainly the decision to tweet or not tweet, and certainly what you say. I meant that wasn't, doesn't sound very smart. But hopefully nobody from GB will do anything like that and hopefully it won't be a problem."<br/> <br />The withdrawal is a blow for Greece - hoping for a source of pride for a nation still struggling with the debt crisis.<br/> <br />Sarah Charlton, Reuters.

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