For quick, 24/7 updates during the Sochi Winter Olympics, most young professionals (YPs) turned to Twitter for the latest, following the conversation with the hashtags #Sochi2014, #WeAreWinter and #TeamCanada. Post Olympics, Twitter released its stats on the world’s #sochi2014 tweeting. Here is the rundown of what we were tweeting during the Olympic Games, February 6-23, 2014…
Top 5 most-mentioned Olympic athletes on Twitter globally:
1. Mao Asada (Japan, Figure Skating)
2. Yuna Kim (South Korea, Figure Skating)
3. T.J. Oshie (USA, Ice Hockey)
4. Shaun White (USA, Snowboarding)
5. Mark McMorris (Canada, Snowboarding
Top 5 most-mentioned sports globally:
1. Ice hockey
2. Curling
3. Figure Skating
4. Bobsled
5. Snowboard
Top-Tweeting Countries (countries with the most Tweets per million population, Feb. 6 – Feb. 23):
1. South Korea
2. Russia
3. Japan
4. Netherlands
5. Canada
6. Norway
7. Latvia
8. United States
9. Mongolia
10. France
Top 5 Tweets Per Minute (TPM) peaks globally (Feb. 6 – Feb. 23):
1. USA beats Russia in men’s ice hockey shootout (Feb. 15, 3:18pm GMT) – 72,630 TPM
2. Canada defeats USA in men’s semifinal hockey game (Feb. 21, 7:09pm GMT) – 47,600 TPM
3. Yuzuru Hanyu wins gold in men’s figure skating (Feb. 24, 7:07pm GMT) – 45,750 TPM
4. Canada defeats USA for women’s ice hockey gold medal (Feb. 20, 7:43pm GMT) – 42,000 TPM
5. Canada defeats Sweden for men’s ice hockey gold medal (Feb. 23, 2:20pm GMT) – 27,700 TPM
Most-followed athletes (globally):
1. Shaun White, USA, @shaun_white – 1.38M followers
2. Yuna Kim, South Korea, @Yunaaaa – 755,000 followers
3. Alexander Ovechkin, Russia, @ovi8 – 697,000 followers
4. Patrick Kane, USA, @88PKane – 454,000 followers
5. Lolo Jones, USA, @lolojones – 393,000 followers
6. PK Subban, Canada, @PKSubban1 – 330,000 followers
7. Steve Stamkos, Canada, @RealStamkos91 – 297,000 followers
8. Ryan Kesler, USA, @Ryan_Kesler – 257,000 followers
9. TJ Oshie, USA, @OSH74 – 253,000 followers
10. James van Riemsdyk, USA, @JVReemer21 – 198,000 followers
Not surprisingly, the Canadians were most excited about hockey. All four of the most retweeted Tweets (globally) on the final day of the Olympics related to the men’s gold medal hockey game.
This Tweet from Justin Bieber celebrating Canada’s victory has received 94,365 retweets and 100,228 favourites:
And this Tweet celebrating back-to-back Olympic gold in both men’s and women’s hockey has garnered 6,525 retweets and 4,565 favourites:
In addition, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tweet betting President Barack Obama one case of Canadian beer per hockey game was one of the most-retweeted Tweets among Canadians, at 19,395 retweets and 12,103 favourites.
While it’s a wrap for #Sochi2014, it will be interesting to see what #Rio2016 has in store, both in terms of the Olympic Games and how social media and Twitter will play a role. Until then, remember to #LYNL (Live Your Notable Life)…
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