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LONDON Twitter can be a good or a bad thing, but I would say that in the Olympics it has been a fine way for the general public to get a better view of the athletes involved and drop in on conversations it otherwise never would hear.
When President Barack Obama tweeted his congratulations to Michael Phelps, for instance — you could read both that and Phelps’ reply.
When Justin Bieber said something nice about swimmer Missy Franklin or Lady Gaga tweeted about the U.S. Olympic gymnasts — “Woohoo! Gold for the ladies! Just want to squeeze them! So much talent and beauty. Did u seem all holding hands? There’s no “I” in team” — you could see all that if you cared to.
And it hasn’t been all been gushing about medals. U.S. women’s goalie Hope Solo ripped NBC announcer Brandi Chastain. U.S. hurdler Jason Richardson, one of the funniest athletes on Twitter, compared the Queen to Betty White.
Locally, Olympic athletes like Ricky Berens, Cullen Jones, Caroline Queen and Lauren Perdue have all kept fans up to date on what they were doing in London – Perdue, most famously, with a tweet noting that LeBron James had asked her to dinner.
• Former UNC distance runner Shalane Flanagan finished 10th in the women’s marathon Sunday. Among the notable locals whose turn it is on Monday: former J.C. Smith hurdler Leford Green is in the men’s 400 hurdles final and Kings Mountain wrestler Dremiel Byers competes in Greco-Roman wrestling.
• My “Y’all sure talk funny” list after 10 days in London:
