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news
Chris Froome hits out at social media users who insult athletes (+ video)
Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has hit out social media users who insult athletes, urging them to “think twice before you hurl an insult.”
The Israel Start-Up Nation rider, no stranger to online insults himself – there is even a Twitter account dedicated to whether Froome, still recovering from a near-career ending crash in 2019, has “been dropped yet” – was speaking on a video he posted to his YouTube channel.
Talking about “the whole mental health side of professional sport,” he said: “I think it’s something that has really been highlighted the last few weeks, at the Olympics especially,
“As a community, I think that generally there’s expectations on athletes now that they are almost super-human, but I don’t think all athletes are necessarily super-human in terms of dealing with emotions and all the criticisms that are sometimes thrown their way.
“We see more and more athletes who are really struggling because of the direct access, through social media and other media outlets,” he continued.
“People can sit behind a screen and throw insults at an athlete in a way that you wouldn’t do if you saw them in person or if you passed them in the street or a supermarket.
“People wouldn’t say the things that they say on social media directly to the athlete.
“But I think that especially with the Olympics this year, it’s been really highlighted, that there are so many athletes that really struggle with that pressure and in a way, I think that being an athlete should be about what they actually do in terms of their athletic or sporting capability, not necessarily this other side of things, having to be so strong to deal with all the extra criticism and things that are put onto them.”
Froome continued: “If I can put any message out there, I’d just say, think twice before you hurl an insult at an athlete.
“We’re all out there giving our best every time we represent our country or our team. We want to give our best performance.
“It’s not as if athletes are out there trying not to do their best and I think a lot of athletes are criticised pretty heavily.
“We shouldn’t be so quick to criticise them when they maybe don’t meet expectations,” he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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20 comments
I work on the alternative concept that you should think twice before you hurl an insult at ANYONE.
But yes, Social Media being Social Media and generally not really known for being one of the nicest places to be on the internet.
Your life would be so much more enriched just by not being there. You'll find you'll have more time to do other things
rule 1 for social media
Don't post anything on social media that you wouldn't be happy printing and putting on the work notice board with your name underneath.
Rule 2: don't post anything you wouldn't want your mum to read.
I think that would fall foul of the work notice board.
My mother never understood my sense of humour anyway.
I tweeted that I think Trump should be euthanised after his comments regarding the Beirut explosion....I still stand by the statement, you can put it anywhere and my mum laughed....It got my a permanent ban from Twitter though
Rule #1 should be use your real name. I switched all my account names (including this one) to my real name years ago when I decided I shouldn't post anything I wouldn't be able to defend if anyone who knows me in real life called me on it.
Bit of a danger in using your real name as it enables a digital trail of you and a mechanism to collate data on you which can be used for criminal actvity - mainly identity theft.
Yep - never use your real name
Disguise it by having it backwards !
Shit! I've been rumbled
I know lots of people who use their real names online and I don't know one who's experienced identity theft because of it. Obviously one doesn't go exposing things like what bank one uses or one's home address, but danger from just using one's real name - don't think so.
It's the steady accumulation of data that can be harvested via cookies, postings using data mining techniques that lead to identity theft or simple social engineering.
I'm pretty careful but I had someone apply for a line of credit using my name. Luckily, they guessed at my first name and got it wrong, so credit was refused.
That is somewhat less likely than the risk of your details being in a data breach and those credentials then changing hands and attempts made on any number of other sites. It happens all the time.
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
Do not use the same password on multiple sites, especially where they may store credit card or bank account details.
The people who insult athletes online are morons and deadbeats and should just be ignored, but that's easy to say if you're just a nobody. I've been called various things on here, such as 'boring old fart' and worse, but I'm not a top athlete and it has no effect whatsoever on me beyond not reading or replying to the insulter if I remember who they are. I feel bad enough about not remembering the people who didn't quite make it, because they were 4th or whatever- sports are a tough ruthless business, and people who just abuse those who were at the peak and now face the inevitable slow or quick decline are scum.
Here's an idea, if anyone doesn't like the downsides of social media, don't do it. Sorted.
Is it cold and dark under your bridge?
I have no idea, but I suspect a lot of sponsors require their athletes to participate in social media.
Yes, that's a much better approach that actually tackling the abuse...
If you don't like close passes, driver aggression, road road or being crushed by a lorry then just don't ride on the road. Simples.
Odd comment. there are many downsides to social media, some inevitable, but many simply due to spite. If someone requested that people refrained from racist trolling, would you use the same response?
As SM is essentially the virtual public space, shouldn't people be able to engage in it without fear of abuse? or should the virtual public space be the exclusive domain of "the strong".
If the latter, do the same principles extend to the real public space?