Athletes make India proud, ignorant celebs mess up on social media
The Tokyo Olympics 2020 began without crowds in the stands, but fans are making the most of social media to cheer up their sports heroes! At times, however, the enthusiasm goes awry and ignorance about the sporting events results in goof ups, witnessed on Twitter since Mirabai Chanu won the first medal for India.
Here are a few (surely there will be many more) slip ups on Twitter concerning the sports biggest extravaganza unfolding in Japan:
1. Bollywood actor Tisca Chopra was probably the first to start a series of follies that just doesn’t look like stopping. While congratulating weightlifter Mirabai Chanu for winning a silver medal in the women’s 49kg category at the Tokyo Olympics 2021, Tisca erred by sharing an Indonesian weightlifter Aisah Windy Cantika’s picture instead of Mirabai’s pic. Twitter trolled her badly and it didn’t stop till she apologised. Tisca Chopra deleted the erroneous tweet and apologised on Twitter: “Glad you guys had fun! That was a genuine mistake, am so sorry .. still doesn’t mean I am not proud of @mirabai chanu at the #TokyoOlympics .. and of the rest of our contingent.”
2. Alia Bhat is troller’s all-time favourite. The Republic reported that the Bollywood star used hashtag ‘Tokyo 2021’, to write: ‘Best of luck to the Indian contingent’ with the Indian flag and heart emojis. Twitter users were quick to spot the mistake as the pic had now defamed wrestler Sushil Kumar, who won a silver at the 2008 Olympics with a bronze in that edition. Some even commented that the wrestler is now in jail in a murder case.
Err…. Photo is from 2012 Olympics Alia Bhatt, please don’t call it honest mistake 😅@aliaa08 pic.twitter.com/6TK3qzEb87
— Divyam Jain (@divyamd) July 23, 2021
3. Wrestler Priya Malik’s gold-winning feat at Cadet World Championships in Budapest evoked the most gaffes. India’s first male super model and fitness freak Milind Soman was one of them. “Thank you Priya Malik! #gold #TokoyoOlympics #wrestling welcome to Mt Olympus,” Milind wrote on Twitter. When trollers roasted him for mistaking Priya’s feat at Budapest as a win in Tokyo, he promptly responded: “Sorry, should have checked before my earlier tweet, but was too overcome with joy. Priya Malik won Gold at the World wrestling Championships! Onwards and upwards.” Soman went on to add: “I know now, still happy 🙂 and I won’t delete the tweet, sometimes it’s ok to make a mistake.”
Thank you Priya Malik! #gold #TokoyoOlympics #wrestling welcome to Mt Olympus 👏👏👏👏🙂
— Milind Usha Soman (@milindrunning) July 25, 2021
4. Indian cricketers Ishant Sharma and Hanuma Vihari and actors Bhumi Pednekar and Vatsal Seth too congratulated Priya Malik for winning a medal for India at the Olympics.
5. KFC India, in a now-deleted tweet, tagged the wrong Priya Malik to send out their best wishes. Twitterati literally ‘fried’ the food chain. Actually, wanted to congratulate wrestler Priya Malik, the wrestler, but erroneously tagged actor and poet-performer Priya Malik instead, who wrote back, saying: “I only wear gold and I’m always hungry @KFC_India. Wrong tag,” with laughing emojis.
