Greek Olympian expelled over hateful tweet
This is Greek Olympic triple jumper Voula Papachristou. Well, *former* Greek Olympic triple jumper Voula Papachristou. She was expelled from the team due to this extremely hateful tweet, which I've translated using Chrome's internal translator below.
I mean...wow. Papachristou is a supporter of the extreme right Golden Dawn party in Greece, which apparently denies the Holocaust, promotes Aryan supremacy, and wants to rid the country of immigrants. This support is evidenced by a number of retweets supporting their philsophies. It was the racist joke on Sunday that pushed the Greek Olympic committee over the edge apparently, resulting in her being forced off of the team.
Could you imagine an American athlete tweeting out links in support of the KKK, or a similarly minded group? When sports personalities tweet *anything* political, there's a mild murmur among fans. Imagine if something as extreme as this happened on this side of the pond.
[h/t: Washington Post]
The punishment is over kill. Her apology should have been enough to reconsider & allow her to compete in the Olympics.
That's stupid. I mean, it isn't funny, but it isn't implying that people from Africa are worthless or stupid or of a lower class. If it did, then yes, she should probably be kicked off the Greek team, because the althletes are required to behave in a manner befitting the Olympic team. For instance, one of the American athletes was kicked out of the Olympic village in 2010 for doing something stupid (I don't remember what) but it was deemed unbefitting a member of the American team. He wasn't allowed to attend the closing ceremonies. Oh yeah - it was Scott Lago and somebody snapped a picture of a girl kissing his Bronze medal - while he held it below his belt. Anyway, you can get kicked off an Olympic team or out of the Olympic Village for doing all kinds of stupid things that aren't illegal.
Nobody's a mindreader and therefore can't know what's in her heart, but those words weren't so bad.
What does the KKK have to do with anything??? The girl made a funny tweet. Most laughed...except the brain dead.
Get real! The THOUGHT POLICE are now ruling the Olympics. Where is HER right to free speech? "We don't like you, we'll remove you from the team" is the mantra of the day.
Greece is not Amaerica you jackass! They don't have free speech. Their athletes are supposed to respect people from any country. They are supposed to be as dumb as you are!
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She has the right to say whatever she wants, but free speech doesnt' imply freedom from consequences of that speech. Her right to free speech does not include the right to be on the Greek Olympic team.
The tweet in question is not racist.
Greece is showing their incredible socialist/democratic stupidity by taking this action in a supposedly "non-political" performance based competition.
Although I don't agree with KKK, or any party which holds a clearly racist view, I also don't agree with a misguided political correctness.
On the issue of immigrants, for sure many European countries have hurt their own countries by allowing and encouraging too much immigration. The source is clear....3 decades of easy money policy, creating a false sense of wealth and entitlement, and making the host country peoples feel like they are above menial work, thus encouraging immigrants to do these tasks, and when the bubble bursts, which they always will, the immigrant, closer to the financial breaking point will turn to crime and unsavory methods to keep going.
3 decades of easy money, and the corruption of the Euro have caused this problem. The so-called "elite" or should we just call them greedy criminal financial overlords?
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@FredStender It's too easy to always blame the immigrant...that seems lazy and convenient... Immigrants work hard, and are willing to contribute their time and energies to improve us ALL...! It is only right to acknowledge their contributions...
They don't always work hard, sometimes they just want the handouts, the world is different lately.
Not a good image for Greece (or ANYWHERE, for that matter...!) showing her cro magnon breeding....
I was under the impression the Olympics were supposed to be free of politics. I think that should include political correctness. I know nothing about the political party she is allegedly associated with but it seems to me that throwing a young girl off a spot she had earned through competition, because of a tasteless joke is too much and has more to do with internal Greek socialist politics than actual offense or the Olympics.
