TORONTO – When it comes to the social Games, figure skating takes home gold.
According to data from Facebook, figure skaters’ fancy footwork has captured the attention of social media users, ranking as the No. 1 talked-about sport on Facebook in Canada, the U.S., and Russia in the first week of the Sochi Olympics.
The attention is well due – Canada has had a big week in figure skating, starting with Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir helping Team Canada win silver in the new team skate event. On Friday, 23-year-old Patrick Chan won a silver medal in men’s figure skating after falling twice during his long program.
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Figure skating has also captured the heart of one Vine user, who has been taking clips of some of the routines and setting them to hit music from the 90’s using the hashtag #90sfigureskating.
The Sochi Olympics are off to a strong start when it comes to social chatter: 24 million people mentioned the Games on Facebook during the first week of events, with a grand total of 48 million combined posts, comments, and “likes,” according to Facebook’s data.
Other much talked-about sports online include biathlon, luge, and ice hockey.
GRAPHIC: Most talked-about sports on Facebook by country
U.S. snowboarder Shaun White was the most talked-about athlete on Facebook in the first week of the Games. White made headlines after withdrawing from the men’s slopestyle event and then later failed to medal in the men’s halfpipe event – an event which he won gold in the last three Winter Games.
Canadian freestyle skier Alex Bilodeau came in fourth on the list of the Top 5 most talked-about athletes on Facebook – he was the only Canadian athlete to make the list.
Top 5 most talked-about Olympic athletes on Facebook so far:
- Shaun White, U.S. snowboarder
- Jenny Jones, Great Britain snowboarder
- Michael Christian Martinez, first skater from the Philippines in the Olympics
- Alex Bilodeau, Canadian freestyle skier
- Jamie Anderson, U.S. snowboarder
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