Banned Greek Olympian angry over ban from racist Tweet






The Greek triple jumper who leaped to infamy for sending a racist tweet which led her to expulsion from the London Games, has spoken out, declaring her punishment "highly excessive."

Voula Papachristou, the 23-year-old Greek triple jumper who came to international attention this week through a tasteless tweet, has criticised the decision reached by the Hellenic Olympic Committee to expel her from the Olympic Games.

Instead of coming to world attention through her athletic prowess, Papachristou fell into the spotlight after posting a message on Twitter which read "With so many Africans in Greece … at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food!!!" After initially extending an apology for her remarks, Papachristou has now spoken out in anger.

According to Yahoo Sports Greek athletes were not given any guidelines or rules of conduct for Twitter use by Greek authorities. Moreover officials said the decision to ban her was reached as they did not want to "place Greece in a very negative light."

Arguably their actions brought far more prominence to Papachristou and attention to Greece than she would have achieved if allowed to compete without international attention placed on her remark.

In reality it is the athlete's open support for the far-right political party Golden Dawn which most likely drew political pressure to influence the decision to ban her.

The Greek press reported Papachristou had re-tweeted messages posted by Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris, showing support, although she has since erased all messages connecting her to
the party.

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