Japanese Internet reacts in dismay to official Olympics Twitter quietly changing its header

https://ift.tt/3rInP0s Katy Kelly

Netizens claim that whoever runs the account is making a call on the fate of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The official Twitter account of the Olympics is one of the most sterile, cheery spaces in the online sports world. It skates through discourse, does a long jump over drama, and instead dives straight into feel-good content intended to generate excitement for the event itself and the athletes who take part.

Take this cheery factoid they posted late last year, for instance:

Did you know sport climbing will be making its Olympic debut at @Tokyo2020?

It will feature three disciplines in a combined event. Who's looking forward to it?#StrongerTogether #SportClimbing @IFSClimbing pic.twitter.com/VMICfNS38Y

— Olympics (@Olympics) November 17, 2020

By the time this tweet about the brand new sports to be unveiled at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics went live, it was already clear that said Olympics would not be taking place in 2020. In fact, it still felt rather uncertain if the games would take place at all, despite a brand new 2021 date reflected by the official Twitter account’s header.

▼ This image is taken from a Wayback Machine snapshot on February 3, 2021, 8:14 am.

Sadly, it seems the official Olympic Twitter has run out of patience. On February 3, the header was replaced with the current image, advertising the rapidly-approaching arrival of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

▼ Another snapshot from the Wayback Machine, this one from February 3, 2021, 11:57 pm.

Well, they would have had to update it at some point considering that the Beijing Winter Olympics are, in fact, a year away. However, the fact that the header was changed amid the latest of a series of Tokyo Olympics PR mishaps didn’t go unnoticed.

▼ “Changing the official Olympics Twitter header to honor the Beijing Olympics, at a time like this — it’s way too significant, don’t you think?”

このタイミングで五輪公式ツイッターのヘッダーが北京五輪に変わったの流石に意味深すぎないか？ pic.twitter.com/zjrGGmTXA4

— ローダ (@dra_veer_naho) February 9, 2021

Many of the replies and quote-retweets clearly agreed that this isn’t a good sign for the Tokyo Olympics.

“Cancellation confirmed.”
“People abroad are barely even talking about the Tokyo Olympics anymore.”
“The Olympics themselves are strongly suggesting something at this point…”
“Whoa, they seriously did change it.”

It seems that there’ll need to be some very drastic measures taken to boost the Tokyo Olympic 2020 fervor at this point, as even vaccine rollouts and their team of elite hackers haven’t drawn any attention away from the official Tokyo Olympics chairman’s misogynistic comments.

Source: Twitter/@Olympics via Itai News
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Wayback Machine (1, 2)
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