The athlete Papachristou Voula, Greek triple jump champion, will have to leave the Olympic venues in London and return home after making an offensive tweet last Monday. The declaration of the athlete on Twitter was considered racist by members of the Greek government, which prevented it from representing the country in competitions.
The tweet was: "With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes (which transmit a disease) can eat food from their own land."
One of the three parties that form the basis of the Greek government - the Democratic Left - ordered the athlete in a statement:
"Humor and racist jokes offensive to human lives are not tolerated by socidade Greek and can not thrive in Greek athletics. The least the Olympic committee can do now is to revoke the right of Voula Papachristou to compete in the Olympics," he says. "Watching on TV, she can make all the jokes that she wants, but is not sure she will represent Greece in London."
Papachristou apologized after the fact. "I am very ashamed of what I did, though he did not want to offend anyone or infringing human rights," he said.
