Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah announced that she had been barred from posting on Instagram after sharing a video of her gold medal award-winning sprint.
Thompson-Herah won gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints at the Tokyo Olympics — but despite being the star of the footage, the athlete did not have the rights to the footage.
“I was blocked on Instagram for posting the races of the Olympic because I did not own the right to do so. So see y’all in 2 days,” she tweeted.
The International Olympic Committee claimed responsibility for having the video pulled.
“Rights Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) have the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympic Games,” the IOC told Reuters. “This includes distribution on social media, where athletes are invited to share the content provided by the RHBs on their accounts but cannot post competition content natively. Should that occur, the removal of such content from social media platforms happens automatically.”
Team Jamaican swept the medal podium over the weekend in the women’s 100-meter final. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the silver medal while Shericka Jackson won bronze. Thompson-Herah secured the title of the world’s fastest woman in the world with a time of 10.61.
“The legacy we have in Jamaica is incredible,” said Fraser-Pryce, per The New York Times.
Thompson-Herah broke the 33-year-old Olympic record of Florence Griffith Joyner, who still owns the world record at 10.49.
“This 10.6, it takes a lot,” she said. “I think I celebrated early, too much.”
In the 200-meter sprint, Thompson-Herah defeated Namibia’s Christine Mboma and the United States’ Gabrielle Thomas to win gold.
