Seb Coe Warns British Athletes from Using Twitter During Olympics

LOCOG chief Sebastian Coe has advised British athletes to forget about using Twitter during the Olympics.

“Personally I have found quite a close correlation between the number of tweets at competitive times and the level of under-performance,” he said.

“I have found a direct correlation between the amount of activity an athlete enters into on social media and their ultimate performance when it really matters – but that’s for them to figure out.”

Coe has his own Twitter account but says it would have had no interest for him had it been around when he was competing.

“I think it is a great way of communicating – and I live in that world, you couldn’t have four kids 20 and down without knowing the world they live in.

“But from a personal perspective when I was an athlete I just wanted complete and total focus. I knew it was my time and that they don’t come around that often.

“If I was focusing on trying to defend a title I wouldn’t be reading Twitter, I wouldn’t be interested in it, why would I?

“My gut instinct as a competitor is that there are no tomorrows. You are only here once.”