By Karolos Grohmann
TOKYO (Reuters) – Not even the fastest woman in the world can outrun Tokyo 2020 Olympics broadcast rights holders, with gold medallist sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah saying she had been blocked on Instagram for posting videos of her victorious 100 and 200 metres races.
The Jamaican sprinter defended her Olympic titles from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics over the two distances in Tokyo, making it four Olympic gold medals from two Games.
But her attempt to share her Tokyo competitions with her 310,000 followers on Instagram backfired.
“I was blocked on Instagram for posting the races of the Olympic (sic) because I did not own the right to do so. So see y’all in 2 days,” the sprinter wrote on Twitter.
Thompson-Herah is due to compete in the women’s 4×100 metre relay on Thursday and, should Jamaica qualify for the final, on Friday. She had won a silver medal with her teammates in Rio.
The International Olympic Committee, who along with Instagram were contacted by Reuters for a comment, will receive more than $4 billion in broadcasting rights for the period including the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics and the Tokyo Games.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
