Phelps most mentioned athlete on twitter at Rio Olympics

Ah yes, the Olympics. The one time every four years where swimming and other sports get the attention that they deserve.

Many fans took to Twitter this Olympics, tweeting about the excitement, emotional ups and downs, upsets, and scandals that came along with it all. Below is a summary of the 2016 Olympics through Twitter data.

Most Mentioned Athletes

If there was an Olympic event for the number of times an athlete was mentioned on Twitter, Michael Phelps would have yet another gold medal to add to his collection.

Michael Phelps phenomenal performance at his last Olympics definitely got the attention it deserved, earning Phelps the title of most mentioned athlete on Twitter at the Olympics.

He was followed by track athlete Usain Bolt, who swept the 100, 200, and 4×100 for the third-straight Olympics; and Brazilian soccer player Neymar, who played the hero and scored the deciding penalty kick to propel the host nation to gold.

Most Mentioned Events

With all of the upsets in this year’s Olympic swimming competition, it’s no surprise that fans flocked to Twitter to express their feelings about the results.

Swimming was the number one most mentioned event during the Rio 2016 Olympics, followed by Football/Soccer and Track & Field.

Top 3 Moments

Fans took to twitter each and every day of the Olympics, being sure to tweet about all of the most exciting events.

Neymar’s winning penalty kick for Brazil in the gold medal soccer game took both first and third place for the most tweeted moments during the Olympics, #1 being Neymar’s game winning penalty kick in the gold medal game, and #3 being his goal that put Brazil up 1-0 versus Germany in the same game.

Usain Bolt’s third straight gold medal in the 100 m dash finished second.