World Athletics Offer AI Shield To Top 25 Athletes From Online Abuse
World Athletics has offered 25 athletes year-round protection through artificial intelligence on their social media platforms after they were targeted by cyber bullies during major recent events.

World Athletics has offered 25 athletes year-round protection through artificial intelligence on their social media platforms after they were targeted by cyber bullies during major recent events.
The online activities of athletes were studied over a period of four years by the Signify Group’s Threat Matrix reports. The period consisted of two Olympic Games and two World Championships where the online abuse faced by the athletes were analysed.
For this initiative by World Athletics, more than 1.4 million posts or comments were analysed, covering 2,438 track, field and road athletes. It isthe first time an international federation had conducted such an in-depth analysis.
World Athletics has not identified the 25 athletes and are yet to divulge on how the AI system will work. But the body confirmed that the number of athletes would be expanded next year.
“We have invested significant resources into conducting research into online abuse and one of our significant successes from this initiative has been our ability to offer athletes support and providing them with the tools to proactively protect themselves against online abuse,” said World Athletics president Sebastian Coe.
“Athlete welfare is at the very top of our priority list, and we will continue to put measures in place to ensure that athletes can confidently and safely engage with social media platforms.”
Of the more than 350,000 posts that was analysed during the Paris 2024 Olympics on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, 809 were verified as abusive, 18% of them racist, 13% sexual in nature, and 17% sexist. Two athletes received 82% of all the abuse.
Jamaican sprinter Junelle Bromfield spoke out in August about the cyber bullying – including death threats – she had suffered during the Paris Games over her relationship with Olympic 100 metres champion Noah Lyles.

Three out of the top-five abused athletes from the 2023 world championships in Budapest also featured in the top five most targeted athletes at the Paris Olympics.
Approximately 240,000 posts were captured for analysis from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were held in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, with 132 of them verified as abusive, with 63% of them aimed at two female athletes.
The study commissioned by World Athletics also concluded that emojis were being increasingly used in online abuse.
It said, “The data indicates that the ‘weaponisation of emojis’ has continued to increase, as emojis are often used to circumvent platform guidelines, being deployed with not immediately obvious abusive context.”
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Highlights of the report by World Athletics
- 1.4 million posts or comments analysed
- 1,258 posts and comments reported through to the relevant platform
- 254 accounts verified to have sent abusive or threatening content
- 2 serious cases have been highlighted to authorities after the accounts had been identified
- Tokyo 2020 Olympics: 63% of abuse was targeted at two athletes (both female), with 29% of abuse sexist and 26% racist
- Oregon 2022 World Championships: 59% of abuse targeted at female athletes, with 36% of abuse sexual or sexist and 19% racist
- Budapest 2023 World Championships: 35% of abuse racist (12x increase on 2022), with X accounting for more than 90% of detected abuse
- Paris 2024 Olympics: Two athletes accounted for 82% of all abuse – 18% of all verified abuse racist, 13% sexual in nature and 17% sexist