Sochi 2014: The Digital Olympics

Last week, the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games exploded into action. Despite allegations of corruption, those controversial anti-gay laws, and the rumoured $50b cost, it’s shaping up to be one of the best in recent times.

Without a doubt, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was a resounding success leaving a lasting legacy, and setting many digital benchmarks for future Olympic events. For the first time, most events were live-streamed online with NBCOlympics.com showing over 400 hours of competition. In comparison, NBCOlympics.com is live-streaming every single competition from Sochi 2014 for the very first time, totalling over 1000 hours of coverage. The BBC will be showing over 650 hours of live action across six HD streams, another impressive statistic.

More than ever, social media and technology is bridging the gap between the athletes, the event itself, and those watching across the world. With a fully optimised mobile site, extensive internet coverage as well as it’s own Sochi 2014 category in Apple’s App Store, there’s no shortage of ways to engage with the Winter Olympics.

The Social Networks

From that incredible opening ceremony, right through to the moment the flame goes out, Sochi will dominate across all of the social media channels. The #Sochi2014 hashtag is omnipresent across Twitter, racking up millions of tweets in a matter of days. According to Twitter, at the five day mark, there had been over 10m Olympic-related tweets.

Twitter itself has put together a handy map to show the latest conversations that mention the Olympics over the past 24 hours in eight different languages –

Many spoke about how the London 2012 Olympics were known as the ‘Twitter Olympics’ due to the incredibly high engagement globally. Sochi 2014 however, has been dubbed the ‘Viral Olympics’, with much fuss made about the SochiProblems Twitter account that makes light of vast array of problems seen over in Russia. SochiProblems has gathered over 340k followers, trumping the official Sochi 2014 account which has 230k.

It’s not just about mocking the much publicised side-by-side toilets and other bizarre incidents however, Sochi 2014 has provided the perfect platform for athletes to engage with fans across the world. Social media has completely changed the way that the Olympics are seen and discussed and athletes are using this as an ideal opportunity to propel themselves into mainstream audiences.

US alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin mentioned in USA Today that using Twitter in parallel to competing in the Olympics was “a great opportunity to build my legacy and build my brand”. Snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg has gained 43,000 followers since winning his gold medal, using it as a platform to show off his personality and establish himself as a household name in the snowboarding world. He said “So random that people want to follow you after you do something like that”. Don’t forget about the bobsledder Johnny Quinn. Prior to the Olympics, he was anonymous just like you and I, but after getting trapped in a bathroom and breaking down the door to escape, he became an internet sensation and his original tweet received 30,000 retweets.

…With no phone to call for help, I used my bobsled push training to break out. #SochiJailBreak pic.twitter.com/apZRefgvCO

— Johnny Quinn (@JohnnyQuinnUSA) February 8, 2014

Social media is being used to cover every aspect from the Sochi Olympics. From the heroic medal wins, to behind the scenes footage before events, to gorgeous Instagram images painting a picture for those across the world. Even the heartbreaking moments have been captured, such as Heidi Kloser tearing her anterior cruciate ligament during warm-ups –

Facebook engagement is incredibly high. Whilst the official Sochi 2014 page may ‘only’ have 375k likes, the reach stretches much further across the world through various channels. From the NBC Olympics Facebook page having over 1m likes, to BBC Sport and even superstars like Shaun White who regularly receives thousands of likes and shares per image that he posts.

The Sochi 2014 games has been controversial for many reasons. However, it can’t be denied that the event will always be an incredible spectacle, and with the power of social media and the technology available, Russia will be hoping that opinions change for the better. With another few days to go, there is still a lot of time for millions more tweets and a whole lot of social media engagement. Watch this space – here at Parallax, we can’t wait to see what happens next.

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