If we learned anything from Euro 2012, it's that Euros can be casually racist on a stunning level. But how about some casual racism infecting the Olympic spirit? Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou will not be going to London, just two days after a tweet that seems to have sent the whole nation into an uproar. The 140 characters or less that caused this whole mess:
With so many Africans in Greece… At least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!!!
Eh. As far as insensitive tweets that ruin an athlete's greatest accomplishment of their lifetime go, I've seen funnier.
This immediately turned into a big political thing in Greece. (Papachristou is a supporter of the far-right, anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party. Most of the calls for her Olympic ban came from the Democratic Left party.) But despite a lengthy apology, the Greek Olympic Committee has removed Papachristou from the team. In a statement, they said she had been "placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement." The true values of the Olympic movement involve waiting until after the thing you've trained four years for before making bad jokes.