TIGHT SPOT

Greek Jumper Banned from Olympics

Over tweets mocking African immigrants.

Greek athlete Paraskevi Papachristou has been kicked off her country’s team on Wednesday after she tweeted comments that mocked African immigrants. Calling her comments “statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement,” the Hellenic Olympic Committee then banned all members of the team from using social media such as Twitter and Facebook for anything not related to their games. Papachristou’s comments “are the same as violating fair play,” said Isidoros Kouvelos, the head of Greece’s Olympic mission. “We are not here just to get medals, but to promote the Olympic ideals, to show our character.” Papachristou tweeted on Sunday that “with so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!” prompting thousands of negative comments. Although Papachristou originally stood by her comments, she later apologized.