Oliver Hoare, an Australian middle-distance runner, has disclosed that he received negative feedback on social media after his unsatisfactory 1500-meter heat result.
The 27-year-old, who took home the gold medal from the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, had a disastrous start to his Olympic career on Friday, placing third-last in the first heat in a time of 3:39.11.
Hoare was granted another shot in the repechage round on Saturday; in order to advance to the semi-finals, he had to place among the top three. With a timing of 3:34.00, the Sydneysider crossed the finish line four seconds behind the third finisher, but he could only manage fifth.
Hoare had to miss the world championships last year due to a sports hernia, but he had recovered and was in peak form going into the Olympics in Paris. He had won the men’s mile event at the London Diamond League last month.
After his heats run, Hoare acknowledged to reporters that he had been the subject of internet trolls, which had impacted his preparation for the repechage round.
“That (heat) was a terrible race, and I’ve been abused on Instagram, so I did delete it,” Hoare said, as reported by News Corp.
“I probably should have deleted Instagram before I went into the village, but I miss my friends. It’s an easy way of communication when you’re not living at home.
“So that was tough. I think that kind of affected me a little bit, I haven’t slept great.”
In addition to the offensive direct messages, Hoare disclosed that remarks were made on images of his girlfriend.
“If I have a bad race or if something goes wrong, there could be a possibility of that happening, and I have to just tell it to piss off,” Hoare continued.
“They don’t know that I couldn’t walk in November, they don’t know what a lot of athletes go through and sometimes it’s their day, sometimes it isn’t.”
In other news, Australian sprinter Bree Masters, who earlier this week qualified for the women’s 100-meter semi-finals, stated she has learnt to disregard criticism on social media.
“I’ve been on social media for a lot of years now and I’ve been doing it as a job,” Masters said.
“You get hate messages, you get really nice messages, and you just kind of got to block out the nasty ones.
“I just kind of put it aside and I’m very focused on me and pleasing the people that support me, like my family and my friends and my coaches.
“And if I’ve done them proud, that’s all that matters to me.
“I don’t really take comments from people I don’t know on social media.”
With a time of 11.34 seconds, Masters, the Australian woman who has qualified for the Olympic 100-meter semifinals since 2000, finished eighth in her semi.
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