Athletes competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be able to share more of their Olympic experience across their personal digital platforms.
Following feedback from more recent Olympic Games that have taken place during the ‘social media era’, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has released new official Social and Digital Media Guidelines. For the first time, the IOC has decided to release two different sets of Social Media Guidelines: one for athletes and one for other accredited persons, to provide the athletes with more opportunities to communicate their experiences firsthand to their followers and fans.
Accredited athletes will now be able to share more content on their personal social media platforms during the ‘Games Period’, providing they adhere to the new Guidelines. The official Games Period is the period from the date of the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Village until the date two days after the Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony inclusive (i.e. 18 July 2024 until 13 August 2024 inclusive).
This will enable athletes to post on their personal social media accounts audio and video recordings of up to two minutes per post from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and/or at the Champions Park, the Olympic Village, competition venues up to one hour before the start of their competition, and after they have left the mixed zone/doping control station and their training venues and practice areas.
There are still strict conditions that apply to the social media posts to protect the rights of the IOC’s media-rights holders, and the privacy of other competitors and posts (with photographs or videos) cannot be shared if there is any commercial benefit. The use of Artificial Intelligence and AI generated content is also prohibited, as is the sharing of any content from doping or medical stations.
No doubt we’ll be seeing lots of snippets from the stables at Paris 2024, but wonder what happens if horses have their own social media accounts (although of course they are accredited athletes too!)
