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Diver Daley is acclaimed as social media champion of London 2012

Monday, 20 August 2012
By Stuart Newman

Tom Daley_19_AugustAugust 20 - Tom Daley may have won bronze in the diving pool at London 2012 but he also landed a lesser known gold medal – in the social media Olympics.

The British teenager (pictured top) has been confirmed as the world's most popular Olympian after finishing top of a social media survey to find the "virtual-world champion" of the Olympic Games.

Daley attracted the most Twitter followers and Facebook fans during the 17-day competition with double gold medal-winning sprinter Usain Bolt generating the second biggest number and swim king Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals – the third greatest.

In the final reckoning Daley had 1.2 million Twitter followers and 820,000 Facebook fans, with Jamaican Bolt having 960,000 Twitter followers and one million Facebook fans, and Phelps one million Twitter followers and 820,000 Facebook fans.

Daley's Team GB squad had reason to celebrate after also picking up a virtual gold for social media's most popular team, thanks to 365,000 Twitter followers and 840,000 Facebook fans.

Team GB_medallists_19_AugustTeam GB's medallists were responsible for the host nation striking gold in the social media Olympics

Silver went to the United States, which had 160,000 Twitter followers and 200,000 Facebook fans, with Japan taking bronze, courtesy of 20,000 Twitter followers and 60,000 Facebook fans.

The figures were collated by Starcount.com, a social media leaderboard company, which analysed the social media popularity and engagement metrics of the athletes and teams throughout the Games.

The results were revealed through some 1.5 billion consumer likes and responses across a range of social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, plus Sina Weibo and Tencent which are popular in China.

The top ten athletes (with their number of followers/fans/viewers) were:

Pos Athlete Country Sport Twitter Facebook YouTube Sina Weibo Tencent
Gold Tom Daley Great Britain Diving 1.2m  820,000  2.3m  N/A 200,000
Silver Usain Bolt Jamaica Athletics 960,000  1.0m  10,000  N/A 220,000 
Bronze Michael Phelps United States Swimming 1.0m  820,000  N/A 100,000  N/A
4th Gabrielle Douglas United States Gymnastics 620,000  590,000  N/A N/A N/A
5th Jessica Ennis Great Britain Athletics 440,000  680,000  70,000  N/A N/A
6th Sun Yang China Swimming N/A N/A N/A 2.0m  N/A
7th Ryan Lochte United States Swimming 900,000  120,000  5,000  3,000  N/A
8th Liu Xiang China Athletics N/A N/A N/A N/A 2.0m 
9th Lin Dan China Badminton N/A 15,000  N/A N/A 1.3m 
10th LeBron James United States Basketball 280,000  240,000  5,000  N/A N/A

The top five teams (with their number of followers/fans/viewers) were:

Pos Country Twitter Facebook YouTube
Gold Great Britain 365,000 840,000 90,000
Silver United States 160,000  200,000 6.3m
Bronze Japan 20,000 60,000 N/A
4th New Zealand 5,000 80,000 N/A
5th Australia 15,000 40,000 80,000

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