Olympian Rebecca Adlington Gives Up Twitter To Avoid Internet Trolls

Rebecca Adlington is trying to add to her gold medal count (she already has two) at the 2012 London Olympic Games and she isn’t going to let a bunch of internet trolls distract her. Adlington, who was recently berated on Twitter for her looks, said that she was going to give up on social media until after the Olympic Games.

Adlington, who won gold medals for the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle events at the 2008 Beijing Games, said that she gets harassed on social networking sites like Twitter about her looks.

Adlington said:

“I used to read all the stuff about me. I learned very quickly not to do that. It is awful. Even if there are ten nice comments you get one idiot. I’ve now given up. It upsets me or gets me angry. They are to do with how I look, which has nothing to do with my performance in the pool. It’s just nasty comments about things I can’t control. I can’t help the way I look.”

Adlington told the Daily Mail that she won’t be checking her Twitter account, which has close to 50,000 followers, until after the Olympic Games.

“The messages of support are amazing but you do have the chance of someone saying something that is going to be annoying. You don’t want that added stress. You don’t want to be thinking about that.”

Rebecca Adlington is at the top of her sport. Has won multiple gold medals. And is still criticized for how she looks? Adlington said that she’s been made fun of for the way she looks before. After the 2008 Olympic Games, the BBC had to censor the show “Mock The Week” after comedian Frankie Boyle made “nasty” comments about Adlington

The two-time Olympian said:

“It’s hard for a woman. A guy doesn’t get comments on his weight or his looks. But for women it is difficult because we get criticised for our weight or how we look.”