Greece expels Olympic athlete over racist tweets

Greece's Voula Papachristou soars through the air in the Women's Triple Jump final at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland, in this file photo dated Friday, June 29, 2012. / file,AP Photo/Matt Dunham

(AP) ATHENS, Greece - Triple jumper Voula Papachristou was expelled from Greece's Olympic team Wednesday for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee said Wednesday that Papachristou is "placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement."

Papachristou is in Athens and has not responded to calls from The Associated Press. The committee said she was to travel to London shortly before the track events start.

Papachristou's Twitter account ((at)papaxristoutj) contains several retweets and postings of YouTube videos promoting the views of Golden Dawn, a formerly marginal extreme right party that entered the Greek Parliament in the recent two national elections — in May and June this year — by polling almost 7 percent of the vote.

But it was her attempt at a joke Sunday that went viral. Commenting on the widely reported appearance of Nile-virus-carrying mosquitoes in Athens, Papachristou wrote: "With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!". Her tweet prompted thousands of negative comments that snowballed Wednesday.

Since anyone can access an unprotected Twitter account, Papachristou's YouTube links and retweets inevitably became known. Several of her retweets were original tweets by Ilias Kasidiaris, the Golden Dawn spokesman and one of the party's 18 Parliament members, who became notorious a few weeks ago for striking a woman Communist MP in the face and throwing water at another female MP during a TV talk show. Papachristou tweeted to Kassidiaris on his name day, last Friday, "Many happy years, be always strong and true!!!"

Papachristou's initial reaction to the negative comments, on Tuesday, was to tweet: "That's how I am. I laugh. I am not a CD to get stuck!!! And if I make mistakes, I don't press the replay! I press Play and move on!!!"

Her attitude changed completely Wednesday and she has posted five apologetic tweets in less than two hours. The last tweet, a very long one in English, which she has also posted on her Facebook account, reads: "I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.

"My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values. Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races. I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family."

Before the publication of the last tweet, Democratic Left, one of the three parties in Greece's coalition government, had published a statement assailing the "racist humor" and calling on the Hellenic Olympic Committee to expel Papachristou from the Olympics

"Let her make any miserable 'jokes' on social media while watching the games on TV. She definitely cannot represent Greece in London," the Democratic Left statement said.

[jolanta725]

Are these kids idiots--politically correct or not--joke or not--don't they know when they throw something out there in the ethernet you can't "take it back"--if you post anything on whatever social network, expect your future boss to see it when they do a search of prospective job applicants.

[UForgotPoland]

Europeans will start to agree with her once there's no more white folks in Europe. Arabs and Africans only leech off systems instead of fixing their own. Europe is just a syringe for them to use up.

[Oldgee60]

As an African-American, I have to say that this is like using a sledgehammer to kill a roach. This kid made a dumb joke that wasn't even particularly funny! I'm sure the Greek Olympic committee could have taken other steps that would not have addressed the situation without turning her into a virtual martyr. It sounds like she doesn't think very highly of Africans but I'm sure she's not the only one at those Games who feels this way, she just got caught expressing it...publicly. By the way, Charlize Theron is an African-American who looks a lot more like Papachristou than me...just saying.

[forrestt56]

Well done Olympic Comittee. This behavior is the exact opposite of what the Olympics are about.

[expatriate2]

Can you name a continent that does not have some joke associated with it? What are these idiots thinking about?

[ExtremeUser]

Africa is a continent, not a race. The inhabitants of Africa are not one race, but are made up of many races. Therefore the 'joke' is not racist.

[gwhite1019]

Greece was probably just trying to save money by sending one less athlete to the games.

[ugot2bkiddgme]

This politically correct crap has gotten way out of hand ! It was a joke !