The document summarizes data about social media mentions related to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi from February 7-23. It found that there were over 17 million total mentions during this period. The United States generated the most social posts and had the most popular athlete hashtags. Hockey and curling were two of the most discussed sports. Shaun White was the most mentioned individual athlete.

1. Tracking the Social
Winter Olympics 2014
February 7 – 23

2. Total Number of Olympic
Mentions from Feb 7 – 23:
17,614,557
Data gathered on 2/24/2014 using Radian6 social listening

3. That’s 720 mentions a
minute!
Data gathered on 2/24/2014 using Radian6 social listening

4. Event Timeline (Turns in Conversation)
Volume of conversation dipped as
events concluded but spiked again on
the final day, which saw the gold
medal game for Men’s Hockey and
the Closing Ceremonies
The opening weekend of the Games
saw the most posts about them with
volume dipping until the last
weekend approached
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
7-Feb
9-Feb
11-Feb
13-Feb
15-Feb
17-Feb
19-Feb
21-Feb
23-Feb

5. Top & Trending Hashtags
• General Olympics-related hashtags were the most
popular with #Sochi2014 earning over 4.5 million
mentions.
• Fans of the United States proved to be the most loyal
hashtaggers, with #TeamUSA earning the number two
spot. However, Canadian-related hashtags such as
#WeAreWinter, #TeamCanada, and #GoCanadaGo
combined to give the country a total of 1,001,697
hashtag mentions.
#sochi2014
4,571,368
#teamusa
741,721
#olympics
685,304
#olympics2014
600,665
#sochi
570,102
423,013
#teamcanada
• Enthusiasm for the games ended up outweighing
sentiment that resulted in the use of #SochiProblems.
The hashtag was popular at the beginning of the
Olympics but quieted down as the weeks progressed.
#wearewinter
412,074
#gocanadago
166,610
#sochiproblems
154,541
#hockey
130,178
0
1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000

6. Most Popular Sports & Events
• Hockey started slow but finished strong. Once the men’s
tournament got underway, exciting matches and intense
rivalries drove conversation around the sport over the onemillion mark.
• Curling surprised some by finishing second overall in total
mentions, beating out figure skating -- despite that sport’s
popularity and controversy relating to judging.
• High adrenaline sports skiing and bobsled rounded out our
top five, showing that people love talking about sports that
involve people travelling down hills at high speeds!
1,200,000
1,057,355
1,000,000
928,023
767,417
800,000
600,000
400,000
250,037
261,622
Skiing
Bobsled
200,000
0
Figure
Skating
Curling
Hockey

7. Most Popular Countries
• The United States was both the subject of the most
country-related hashtags as well as the country
responsible for the most posts with Canada following
second in both categories.
• Japan was responsible for over 600,000 posts, but did
not place a Japanese-related hashtag in the top five.
• Russia’s dominance in the games and Sweden’s
place in the Gold Medal Game for Men’s Hockey saw
them place in the top five for team hashtags despite
not placing in the top five for posts.
Top 5 Team Hashtags
#teamusa
#teamcanada
#teamgb
#teamrussia
#teamsweden
741,721
412,072
58,242
13,617
7,710
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
Top 5 Countries Talking
United States
Canada
Japan
United Kingdom
Netherlands
11,686,719
1,707,123
655,087
601,253
444,342
0
5,000,000
10,000,000
15,000,000

8. Top 10 Most Mentioned Athletes
Shaun White (USA)
431,627
Mark McMorris (Canada)
260,177
Bode Miller (USA)
159,671
Nick Goepper (USA)
131,078
Sage Kotsenburg (USA)
107,580
Ashley Wagner (USA)
Alex Bilodeau (Canada)
85,660
Jamie Anderson (USA)
Shaun White
@Shaun_White
431,627 Mentions
87,990
85,558
Johnny Quinn (USA)
79,007
Patrick Chan (Canada)
77,425
0
75,000
150,000
225,000
300,000
375,000
450,000

9. Top 5 Most Mentioned Athletes
Non-North American
• With the USA and Canada dominating social conversations, it comes as no surprise that athletes from these countries are the
most talked about… but who are the most mentioned athletes outside of these borders?
Martin Fourcade
France
@martinfkde
65,571 Mentions
Tina Maze
Slovenia
@TinaMaze
41,391 Mentions
Yulia Lipnitskaya
Russia
36,569 Mentions
Sven Kramer
Netherlands
@SvenKramer86
33,979 Mentions
Torah Bright
Australia
@TorahBright
33,171 Mentions

10. Top 5 Most Mentioned Users
(excluding athletes)
@CBCOlympics
130,953 Mentions
@USOlympic
177,547 Mentions
@Sochi2014
219,130 Mentions
@ NBCOlympics
208,755 Mentions
@CDNOlympicTeam
242,764 Mentions

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