It may come as a bit of a surprise. Though the International Olympic Committee’s broadcast division chief had said India did score high on digital interaction for the Tokyo Games, Twitter data tells us an entirely different story — the parameters could differ, though.

In a blogspot, titled ‘Behind the tweets at #Tokyo2020’, Twitter’s Jay Bavishi, responsible for Sports Partnerships, writes: “The Games are now complete and the last 17 days have left sports fans worldwide with incredible memories from top events, led by some of the finest athletes on the planet. Fans everywhere turned to Twitter to cheer for thrilling victories, engage with athletes, watch highlights from official broadcasters, and share in the live experience.”

Considering that from the beginning itself India was expecting a fab outing at the Olympics, one would have thought the fans would be discussing, sharing, airing views…basically splurging in digital interactions. But reality, it seems, is different, according to data.

Even with Mirabai Chanu giving a fantastic opening to India’s outing at the Games with a silver medal in weightlifting on the morning after the opening, wrestling was nowhere to be found in Most Tweeted Events or Most Mentioned Athletes or Most Mentioned Sports categories.

According to Twitter data, put out in the blogspot, in the Most Tweeted Events section, it was Brazil’s Rayssa Leal (@rayssaleal) winning a silver medal in women’s street skateboarding that topped the list with No. 2 and 3 spots occupied, respectively, by Japan winning a gold in men’s baseball, defeating the US and Japan again bagging a gold in table tennis mixed doubles, defeating China.

Sports like badminton, wrestling, shooting, hockey — even javelin throw that got India its first gold in track and field events — where India was expected to have a podium outing did not figure in the Twitter’s lists.

Amongst the top five Most Mentioned Sports were volleyball, soccer, basketball, skateboarding and gymnastics.

The blogspot says Twitter crunched the numbers to find the events, talents and trends that owned the podium on Twitter during the event. These rankings are based on all Tweets sent globally between July 23, 2021 and August 8, 2021.

Even if podium finish was a criteria, absence of men’s hockey, badminton, wrestling, women’s boxing and javelin throw is surprising. Indians should have been tweeting like mad on these sports.

The place where India does find a mention in tweeting data is in the Most Mentioned Athletes section where Neeraj Chopra (@Neeraj_chopra1) figures at No. 3 spot with Rayssa Leal (@rayssaleal), skateboarding champ from Brazil and the much-talked about US woman gymnast Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) taking the top two slots.

The official @Olympics account was a must-follow for fans everywhere during the Games, sharing top highlights and content, according to the blogspot.

Mentions of @Olympics grew exponentially during the Games as well. There were 43x more daily mentions of the@Olympics account during the Games, compared to prior 2021 levels.

Chopra again finds a mention in one of the three most liked tweets from @Olympics, which featured him in a war-cry mode with the caption reading ICONIC #IND.

It seems Indians need to work harder on their sporting tweets.