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World Athletics has unveiled the findings of a ground-breaking four-year report analysing online abuse in athletics - the first in-depth, longitudinal analysis of the issue by an international federation.

Conducted using the Signify Group’s Threat Matrix service, the study spanned a four-year event cycle covering track, field and road athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021), World Athletics Championships Oregon 2022, World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In total, more than 1.4 million posts or comments were analysed across the study period, protecting 2,438 athletes participating in World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games.

World Athletics’ deployment of Threat Matrix, which operates in 40 languages, expanded significantly in scope since the initial Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games study. By the Paris Games in 2024, 1,917 athletes and sports officials with at least one active social account were monitored - almost 12 times the original sample set during Tokyo 2020 (161). Moreover, four platforms (X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok) were monitored during Paris 2024, expanding significantly from coverage of just X (formerly Twitter) in the initial 2021 study. However, this study excluded direct messaging or non-targeted abuse conversation; where the athletes were mentioned but not directly tagged, suggesting the issue is even greater than the study highlights.

The project scope and coverage has evolved significantly over four years with the introduction of additional platforms, and the identification of new issues, tactics and motivations for sending targeted online abuse. While the growth of coverage and scope as well as the difference in size and scale between World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games makes direct comparisons between each event complicated, racism, sexism and sexualised abuse were constant throughout the study, as was the prevalence and increasing volume of targeted abusive content on social media.

Introducing the study, World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe stated “over the past four years, we have invested significant resources into conducting research into online abuse during our sport’s major events - our World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games.

“One of our significant successes from this initiative has been our ability to offer athletes support and providing them with the tools to proactively protect themselves against online abuse. Athlete welfare is at the very top of our priority list, and we will continue to put measures in place to ensure that athletes can confidently and safely engage with social media platforms.”

Analysis of data across the four years of research found several interesting observations, including:

• X (formerly Twitter) remains the preeminent platform for watching live events and therefore abusing athletes in real time. However, X does allow full access to data, unlike other platforms, therefore enabling a more complete and accurate detection of abuse.

• The use of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms is still growing and evolving among athletes.

• Far fewer athletes post during competition time, lending an atmosphere of stasis to their accounts. Those that do often only do so to celebrate success - and many employ some form of comment management.

• The use of emojis in online abuse has increased significantly, on multiple platforms. The data indicates that the ‘weaponisation of emojis’ has continued to increase, as emojis are often used to circumvent platform guidelines, being deployed with not immediately obvious abusive context.

As well as providing insights into online abuse and threats during the four major events, taking real world action lies at the heart of World Athletics’ approach to protecting its athlete community. Across the period, this has included:

• 1,258 posts and comments reported through to the relevant platform

• 254 accounts verified to have sent abusive or threatening content have been escalated to the relevant platforms

• 25 athletes have been offered year-round AI protection on some of their social media platforms after having been identified as highly-targeted individuals during major events - this will be expanded over the next year(s)

• Two serious cases have been highlighted to authorities after the accounts had been identified and evidence gathered

• Educational materials have been created and distributed to athletes to provide more information on how to better protect themselves and their accounts online and more are currently in development

The four-year, multi-event study has given World Athletics and the Threat Matrix team a unique perspective and the data insights necessary to outline a path for World Athletics to further enhance online protection of its athletes. And as important, to heighten the athlete care system to ensure the effects of online abuse are minimised and mitigated.

Using this invaluable data, World Athletics is now working on an action plan that will support its safeguarding policy and is exploring the depth and type of future protection for athletes. To ensure the most effective deployment of services, a consultation with athletes on this topic is also taking place.

Some key metrics across each of the four events include:

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
• 161 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (Twitter only)
• 240,707 posts captured for analysis
• 132 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
• 63% of abuse was targeted at two athletes (both female)
• 29% of abuse was sexist and 26% was racist

2022 World Athletics Championships
• 458 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (both Twitter and Instagram)
• 427,764 posts captured for analysis
• 59 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
• 59% of abuse targeted at female athletes
• 36% of abuse was sexual or sexist in nature and 19% was racist

2023 World Athletics Championships
• 1,344 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (both X - formerly Twitter - and Instagram)
• 417,240 posts captured for analysis
• 258 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
• X was the preferred channel for online abuse, accounting for over 90% of detected abuse
• 35% of abuse was racist (12x increase compared to 2022 Championships)
• Unlike previous events, abuse was driven by events outside the stadium and based on athletes’ wider reputation

Paris 2024 Olympic Games
• 1,917 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok)
• 355,873 posts captured for analysis
• 809 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
• 18% of all verified abuse was racist
• Two athletes accounted for 82% of all abuse
• 13% of all detected abuse was sexual in nature and 17% sexist, making up almost 1/3rd of detected abuse in this study
• Three out of the top five abused athletes from the 2023 World Championships also featured in the top five most targeted athletes at the Paris Games

Main image: Sebastian Coe. Credit: Shutterstock.

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