Shaun_White can tweet Olympics

Seems the I.O.C. is finally starting to understand social networking.

Shaun White’s 93,000 followers (including me) will be getting personal updates, legally, from Vancouver.

… there is no Olympic rule that sets up a blackout period for athletes according to Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee.

“Athletes are free to blog during the Games,” says Condron. “And Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time.”

There are some restrictions on what athletes can do online during the Olympics. … people must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences. “You can’t act as a journalist if you aren’t,” says Condron. “You need to do things in a first person way.” …

The other most significant restriction on athletes posts is a ban on references to sponsors or advertisers who aren’t official Olympic partners. …

WIRED – Athletes Confused by Olympic Social Media Rules

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

Katrina sent a link to clarifications from the “IOC Blogging Guidelines for Persons Accredited at the XXI Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver 2010? and the “IOC Internet Guidelines for athletes, coaches, trainers, officials and any other accredited participants” documents:

no photos or video from any Olympic venue

no “voice”