They've been called the first "Social Games" — and the London Summer Olympics have delivered on that promise, making social stars out of athletes like gymnast Gabby Douglas, who saw her Facebook fanbase grow by nearly 4,000 percent during the games.
Gymnasts Marcel Nguyen and Jordyn Wieber were also among the big winners on Facebook, according to a research firm that tracked athletes' fan numbers during the games.
Douglas took the Olympics and Facebook by storm when she coolly led her team to an all-around gold and then winning the individual all-around gold, as well. As of Sunday, she had 583,912 fans on Facebook. Back on July 27, the day of the opening ceremony, she had just 14,358. Those numbers are from the marketing firm Wildfire.
Here's the firm's top 10, ranked by percentage growth in their Facebook fans since July 27:
- Gabrielle Douglas (from 14,358 fans to 583,912)
- Marcel Nguyen (from 7,567 to 194,962)
- Camille Muffat (from 5,136 to 124,294)
- Yannick Agnel (from 5,672 to 89,739)
- McKayla Maroney (from 10,208 to 111,835)
- Jordyn Wieber (from 33,651 to 302,653)
- Daniel Narcisse (from 7,775 to 67,600)
- Chad Le Clos (from 6,090 to 52,532)
- Aly Raisman (from 11,132 to 94,304)
- Alexis Vastine (from 6,774 to 48,638)
Wildfire calls this group the "up and comers." The list doesn't include more famous names like Usain Bolt, who is a titan among Olympians with more than 8 million Facebook fans, or Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, who are established superstars.
If you discovered an athlete that you'll be following for some time to come, feel free to chime in below. Judo's
Kayla Harrison comes to mind. So do the boxer
Claressa Shields, the wrestler
Jordan Burroughs and the runner
Mo Farah. U.S. boxer
Jamel Herring was also impressive, even as his team struggled.
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