I know it is not all about the numbers and Tom Daley has been around on Twitter for quite a while now (since 4th July 2009 to be exact) but it has been interesting to note the growth in fans the global exposure these Games are giving athletes.
It is not only Tom who is seeing massive growth but nearly every athlete who has been making headlines with their performances. For example Rebecca Adlington, who took a bronze medal in the 400m earlier this week, has gone from 90k fans on 29th July to 235k fans today…… that is a phenomenal growth and her favourite event, the 800m (which she is reigning Olympic Champion) doesn’t take place until tonight.
Coming back to Tom. He has been in the news A LOT for both his performance (when he and his partner just missed out on a medal) and when he received some abuse which lead to an arrest of the ‘troll’. He has also been gaining coverage for his Tweeting and the fact that he wont be taking a ‘Twitter holiday’ during these games.
In one day he was mentioned almost 300,000 times, many were messages of support from his trolling experience. Most of the other mentions were from admiring guys and girls who have fallen for the looks and personality of the young Brit.
The numbers are impressive, going from 386k to now passing 1m – thats a huge amount of new followers in 4 days!! To gain over 600k fans in that time is something we are more used to seeing from global sports stars from football and NBA rather than the diving pool.
All of this has lead to him becoming the 9th UK sportsperson to pass the 1m mark. The others are;
