Barnaba Korir has condemned the unwarranted online attacks on Eliud Kipchoge, calling them driven by hatred or jealousy and vowing to protect athletes from cyberbullying.
Barnaba Korir has called upon the public to avoid personal attacks on top athletes and promised to take legal action against rogue social media users.
The Athletics Kenya Nairobi chair has been a victim of cyberbullying and explained that with time, he grew thick skin but revealed that many athletes cannot withstand that.
Barnaba Korir disclosed that people attacking Eliud Kipchoge after Kelvin Kiptum’s death was one of the most unfortunate things he had to witness.
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He explained that most people joined the wave, not knowing what was happening and went ahead of attack his performance and character. Most people who were quick to judge had never even interacted with Eliud Kipchoge on a personal level.
“As I’ve said before, and it’s personal in the sense that when I look at what happened to Eliud Kipchoge, it was unfair and uncalled for,” Barnaba Korir said in an interview with Athletics TV.
“When I looked at it and analysed it, it was not even about anything else, it was about Eliud’s character and performance and you can see this hatred or jealousy.
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“You cannot accuse somebody for not giving you money or anything like that, it is personal. I’ll only give you money when I want, people are not the same because everyone has his own right to do whatever they want provided they don’t abuse you.”
He explained that now, people do not have the liberty of attacking athletes anyhow since there is a rule to protect athletes and legal action will be taken against the perpetrators.
Barnaba Korir noted that there is freedom of speech on social media but once an individual attacks an athlete on a personal level, that becomes a problem.
“At first, it didn’t bother me because when you are abusing me, you have a problem. However, I sat down and asked myself about the people who do not have that kind of skin, it will destroy them,” Korir said.
“We have to fight for those people who are vulnerable, they cannot fight back. There is a rule governing social media and we have to implement it so that you stick to the straight and narrow respect. You can speak about things all you want but when you get personal, we shall come for you.”
The issue of some social media users attacking athletes online is one of the most disturbing dilemmas and last year, Noah Lyles’ girlfriend Junelle Bromfield was one of the victims, receiving death threats.
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World Athletics is also working on protecting athletes from social media attacks. The athletics governing body works by conducting extensive studies on online abuse, utilizing threat monitoring tools like “Threat Matrix” to identify potential threats.
They also provide education and support to athletes on managing their online presence and collaborating with social media platforms to implement better safety features.
