London 2012 will be “the first Twitter Olympics”, according to the BBC’s sports editor.

Speaking at the POLIS conference at the London School of Economics (LSE) on 23 March, David Bond said: “What will be interesting is how many journalists will be using Twitter as a news feed, not only to see what other journalists are reporting, but also to follow those athletes”.

The 550-strong British Olympic team will use the micro-blogging site to talk about their experiences at the Games, so journalists will have to keep a close eye on their feeds for potential leads.

The Australian’s Olympics correspondent Nicole Jeffery, one of 26,000 accredited international journalists who will cover the event, called Twitter “an avenue of access” to the Games.

There were also calls for a more internationalist approach to sport in the British press. Sky Sports News presenter Sean Fletcher said that the British media needed to move away from its “infatuation with our football stars”, and look at other international organisations to cover stories of interest to the public.

“It’s not just about Steve Redgrave – it’s about the global nature of the event,” said John Goodbody, former sports news correspondent for The Times. London 2012 will be the twelfth Olympiad that Goodbody has covered.

Vesela Gladicheva

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