Olympics 2012: Greek athlete expelled for racist tweet

Greek Olympic officials have expelled their champion triple jumper Voula Papachristou from the London 2012 Olympic Games for racist and offensive comments on Twitter.

Papachristou, still in Athens, is now banned from travelling to London for the Games after a series of offensive posts on African immigrants. She is the first athlete sanctioned from the Olympics for a social media offence.

She had written that "with so many Africans in Greece, at least the mosquitoes of West Nile will eat homemade food".

Papachristou said since being notified of the action by the Greek Olympic Committee: "I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights."

The British Olympic Association spokesman Darryl Seibel said none of the 542 Team GB members had been sanctioned or given official warnings for any remarks made on social media sites, but team leaders have been asked to remind athletes of their contractual agreements.

"The team leaders were told to remind the athletes of the importance of being tasteful on social media sites," Seibel said.

Papachristou said her dream was connected to the Olympic Games and argued that she respected the Olympic values and apologised to friends and athletes whom she may have insulted.