This year 's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have made history for several reasons. First, they were postponed for a year due to a global pandemic. Second, they were not attended by an audience. Third, they were the social media sensation that five-time world champion gymnast Simon Biles withdrew to protect her mental health, which generated more than 9,000 messages on Twitter on the day of the announcement.
This is reflected in an analysis by Kantar on the impact on media and social networks following the two sporting competitions. In total, there have been nearly 40,000 impacts in print, online, television and radio press, as well as more than 1,800,000 messages on Twitter . These figures correspond to the start of the Olympics on July 23 and the end of the Paralympics on September 5.
The digital press was the one that followed the competition with the greatest fervor . It published 27,610 news items about the Olympics, compared to 7,600 in the written press and 824 on television. By type of media, general, current affairs and specialized media covered the bulk of the information, compared to national (1,746 news items) and sports (1,447).
The sentiment of most of these stories was positive. Some of the most cited keywords in headlines were “Carreno” (2,787), a bronze medalist at the Olympics, and “Biles” (1,472), following her retirement from competition.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games on Twitter
Focusing on Twitter, the Games had a huge reach, with over half a million impressions and 16 million likes. jordan number data In the case of the Paralympics, these had a total of 256,807 tweets and close to 1.5 million likes.
If we personalize the social conversation, it was Ana Peleteiro who had the honor of being the "social" gold medalist , as she was the most mentioned athlete. Specifically, her official account generated 25,346 tweets, of which 16,750 were published on August 1, when she won her medal.
Audience of sporting events
Those over 45 years of age were the ones who followed the Olympics the most , with coverage of over 73% up to the age of 54 and 78% from the age of 55. Up to the age of 34, the follow-up rate was around 55%.
In relation to the most followed sports, football, athletics and basketball triumphed, with the highest levels of coverage.
“These Olympic Games have been historic, not only because of the pandemic itself, but also because they were held a year later than planned and without an audience,” says Gustavo Núñez , managing director for southern Europe of the Media division at Kantar. “This has meant that television has been, as on other occasions, the fundamental axis for following the competition, but now digital media and social networks have received attention like never