We spoke to Twitter for Top 5 Trends during Rio Olympics 2016, and the results they shared are simply heartwarming

Throughout the #Rio2016 Games, fans around the world turned to Twitter to cheer for thrilling victories, engage with athletes, see highlights, and share in the live experience. Over 187 Million Tweets were sent on the Games and in total, this led to 75 billion impressions (views on and off Twitter) of Tweets about the Olympic Games.

As the event came to a close, folks at Twitter analyzed how the event performed on their portal.

Business Insider chatted with Aneesh Madani, Head of Sports Partnerships at Twitter India and he shared with us the top 5 trends during the 2016 Olympics. It tells a lot about how the Games unfolded on the social networking portal through the course of those two weeks when Indians were obsessing over Rio Olympics.

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Twitteratis came together to celebrate India’s women athletes like never before

Aneesh told us – “The scale at which Indians came together to celebrate our women sporting heroes on Twitter has never been seen before. There were 2 million tweets around the performances of four women sportspersons - PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Deepa Karmakar and Sania Mirza. The count was more than the number of tweets for the India-Pakistan and India-Australia matches combined during the World T20. Also, there were 1.48 million tweets on PV Sindhu throughout Olympics, and 5.76 lakh tweets around Sakshi Malik.”

While public figures tweeted about how these athletes were an inspiration for them, the platform saw even mothers sharing tweets promising to share success stories of the athletes with their young daughters. “It was heartwarming to see Twitter being used for outpouring of emotions. It became the common channel of communication connecting athletes and fans. That was the top trend for us that defined Twitter during these two weeks,” Aneesh said.

Fans and Olympians conversed with each other directly throughout the Games

Twitter saw a spike in conversations between fans and Olympians even before Olympics began. Athletes posted videos, tweeted pictures before and after victory to thank fans for continued support. “Whether it was hockey team tweeting photos from the Rio Olympic village or Deepa Karmakar and Sakshi Malik joining Twitter after their respective win, Twitter saw direct and intimate conversations among Olympians and fans throughout the Games,” Aneesh said.

He added – “The audience of our top 10 most followed Indian Olympians on Twitter grew by almost 12 times since London Games in 2012. During Rio Olympics, PV Sindhu had her Twitter following grow by 7 times. Deepa and Sakshi who joined later already have over 60,000 followers in merely less than a week.”

Moreover, ministers like Sushma Swaraj, celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar became fans of our women players. They were all using Twitter to express their pleasure in seeing the girls perform well in the Games.

“Twitter infact saw for the first time a cricket icon like Sachin Tendulkar even live-tweet the final match between Sindhu and Carolina Marin,” Aneesh said.

An Ecosystem emerged on Twitter, something no one knew of earlier

There are organizations like Olympic Gold Quest, JSW Sports and Gosports who have been tirelessly working with Olympians, supporting their training and preparation for years quietly. For instance, Olympic Gold Quest has been supporting PV Sindhu since she was 14.

“As soon as some of our women athletes clinched medals, there was a lot of conversation on Twitter around how these organizations have helped Olympic athletes become rather great performers. Athletes, fans and sports journalists came together to highlight the work these institutions have been doing and it really brought awareness around this ecosystem which will hopefully get stronger as people connect to these organizations in the times to come,” said Aneesh.

Twitteratis engaged on the need for accountability from sports administrators

During the first week when Indian players came close to medals, but couldn’t get them, Twitter engaged in conversations on how there is a need for better accountability from administrators, and the support Indian athletes need to excel at Olympics.

Humour around Games united non-sports enthusiasts on Twitter

Sporting events like Olympics are bringing people together like never before, and in a fun way. For instance, there were iconic photographs of Usain Bolt being circulated. It got people talking, even those who might not even care about sports or certain sports in Olympics.

In a nutshell, Indian women players not only created history by making it to Rio Games, they united Indians to celebrate women players and different sports. They created history.