lIna Nielsen remembers the moment she had the idea. She was sitting in the Paris Olympic Village with her sprint teammates and was bored. “I told Yemi Mary John, ‘I’m going to do this TikTok,’” Nielsen recalls. He headed to his room, pulled out the flip phone they had given to each athlete, and typed into an Excel spreadsheet: “Where are you? Hello to me.”
His five-second parody of Kelly Rowland’s texting music video fiasco took little longer to make. It also got 8 million views. “It’s funny that the videos that work best are the ones you don’t put any effort into,” Nielsen says, laughing. He is still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his TikTok channel was the most popular of all the British athletes at the Games, beating even the fantastic knitter Tom Daley into second place. By the end of the Olympic fortnight, its channels had been watched by more than the Australian and German teams combined.
Nielsen and her twin sister, Laviai, who also competes in Paris, had joined thousands of athletes who shared behind-the-scenes looks at village life, from chocolate muffins to cardboard beds. “It was a good distraction because you’re so focused on the competition and it can get a little intense – social media just distracts you,” he says. After falling in the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles, Nielsen helped the British relay team to bronze in the 4x400m.
The so-called TikTok Olympics revealed a surprising trend in 2024: female athletes will outnumber male athletes on social media. A Women in Sport Trust survey found that female athletes were responsible for 69% of all TeamGB TikTok content and 67% of all its views. Globally, female voices dominated the conversation in Paris, from Australian water polo ace Tilly Kearns to Dutch skater Keet Oldenbeuving.
The images of the American gymnasts became a narrative arc in their own right after MyKayla Skinner criticized her former teammates’ work ethic just before winning gold and Simone Biles posted a photo of the celebrations afterwards with the caption: “Missing “talented, lazy, Olympian.” champions.”
But the standout star of the Games was Ilona Maher, the American rugby star whose outspokenness captured hearts with her signature lipstick and fake Love Island videos from the Olympic village. The 28-year-old, who won a bronze with the US team in Paris and a runner-up medal on Dancing with the Stars, made a splash when she signed with the Bristol Bears this month.
“I’m not even going to make six figures playing rugby, that’s the sad truth,” Maher said in a recent interview. “Some people may think, ‘She’s not serious about what she does, she posts on TikTok, she doesn’t care about the sport, she’s not going to be that good.’ No. I have to post on TikTok. “That’s where I make most of my money.”
His directness is a big part of his appeal. “She is who she is,” says Ellie Boatman, the rugby sevens player who scored a try in Great Britain’s quarter-final against the United States. “The reason she’s so popular is because people know she’s not trying to be someone else. She shares a lot about having a bigger body: she was a little shy about it before and now she is very proud of it. “I think that resonates with a lot of women.”
Boatman has built a considerable following – his kit overview was Team GB’s most viewed video. Her online presence grew thanks to her honest conversations about overcoming an eating disorder, and Boatman believes social media has encouraged female athletes to present their more vulnerable sides.
“Before, as an athlete, it was just about getting on with your job and working really hard,” Boatman says. “Now I think people are much more interested in the person behind the athlete. – that’s where people can identify. “Over the last year, we’ve seen a lot more stories about people’s journeys, which is really great.”
The relationship has become a USP in a sports industry where male athletes with exorbitant salaries, from Premier League footballers to NBA stars, can appear to lose touch with reality, being dragged into academies and university programs from their adolescence.
Jenny Mitton, managing partner and women’s sports leader at agency M&C Saatchi, says it makes sense that athletes are natural communicators on social media: they have long had to speak up to be heard. “When they have a passion, whether it’s about performing well or tackling inequality, there’s a real authenticity to what they say,” Mitton says. “And that’s what flies on social media.”
The positives for female athletes who continue to fight for media coverage are obvious, especially for those who play sports that barely receive coverage beyond the quadrennial events. Paralympic athlete Lottie McGuinness switched from swimming to weightlifting in 2020: since then, she says, “I’ve trained for four years for a moment that lasts less than 30 seconds.”
Their competitive action lasts only a few seconds at a time; You could say that it is a sport made for TikTok. In fact, his content was the most viewed by any British athlete at the Paralympic Games. “In the run-up to Paris I was uploading videos every day,” says McGuinness. “I really enjoyed it and got into a rhythm that really helped me. “It was great to expose the sport and show what it is all about.”
But there is a dark side. Research commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and published by Loughborough University earlier this year found that female athletes are disproportionately subject to abuse on social media, much of it related to their gender or sexuality. In the Olympic Games there was no better example of this disturbing and destructive trend than the case of boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Questions raised about their gender eligibility (by the International Boxing Association, which had excluded them from the 2023 world championship) dominated the news agenda and invited the ugliest responses online.
Dr Emily Hayday, one of the authors of the Loughborough report, says it is important for sporting bodies to recognize where hotspots are likely to occur and put systems in place to protect athletes. “Accountability was the biggest issue we identified: who is responsible for safeguarding these spaces? A great example is what the IOC did by implementing an artificial intelligence-based system to track and identify abuses early. “They could then provide specific support to the relevant federations on how to manage it.”
Given that the IBA’s disqualification of Khelif and Lin took place more than a year before the Games, one could argue that the IOC should have addressed the issue much earlier in the process. Still, as the investigation found, the social media backlash can cause measurable harm to athletes’ careers and well-being. Take Rachael Louise Gunn, also known as Raygun, whose kangaroo-jumping performance in the breaking competition attracted widespread attention and scorn. “I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate that, frankly, it’s been pretty devastating,” Gunn said at the time. He has since stopped competing.
American gymnast Jordan Chiles received racist comments after she was demoted from bronze following the floor final. He has used those experiences as fuel, especially in his continued appeal against the decision he describes as a commitment to “my peace” and “my justice.” If anything, the controversy has only helped his profile: talking to teen fashionHe said that the most positive thing was knowing that “I was already a brand and continuing to distinguish myself.”
Branding and activism have become increasingly closely allied in women’s sport. Both Mitton and Hayday point out that female athletes are creating powerful identities that can then be used to advocate for various causes. “Because historically there has been more activism than in men’s sport, it’s part of the culture,” Mitton says. “And once someone sets a precedent and you see other people talking more, you feel more comfortable doing it.”
While male athletes may be limited by the power of their clubs and corporate sponsors, some female athletes with individual followings have greater influence than the club or league in which they play. This year, Caitlin Clark demonstrated how an athlete can transcend her sport and attract a large number of new fans for the first time, but she also acknowledged her white privilege after Time The magazine named her athlete of the year.
It was vital, Clark said in her cover interview, to recognize the foundation and legacy of Black players in the Women’s National Basketball Association: “appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that and then continue to get brands and companies to invest.” in those players. who have made this league incredible.”
As someone living with multiple sclerosis, Lina Nielsen recognizes the increasing power of female athletes on social media to address the issues that matter to them. “I definitely want to use my voice to advocate for MS,” she says. “I’m very fortunate in that I haven’t had many symptoms that have caused me to become disabled, but there are many people living with a disability and struggling with issues related to PIP claims.” She was even invited to the House of Commons after the Olympics, to discuss the issue with government figures. “That wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have a platform.”