Gold medalist swimmer from the Beijing Games, Rebecca Adlington, is upset and angry by the criticism she receives through the internet.  So for the Olympic Games in London this year, she will avoid the internet altogether.

‘It is awful. Even if there are ten nice comments you get one idiot. I’ve now given up. It upsets me or gets me angry.

‘They are to do with how I look, which has nothing to do with my performance in the pool. It’s just nasty comments about things I can’t control. I can’t help the way I look.’

And it’s not like Rebecca has 100 followers on Twitter, she has 48,562!  She told the Daily Mail she often uses the “block button” on Twitter to stop receiving those offensive messages.

She said:

‘I don’t know how people expect to send a nasty message and not get blocked. I won’t be checking Twitter or going on it a lot during the Games.

‘The messages of support are amazing but you do have the chance of someone saying something that is going to be annoying. You don’t want that added stress. You don’t want to be thinking about that. I think I will just tweet once it is over.’

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time Rebecca has faced criticism.  Back in 2009, the BBC panel show “Mock The Week” made “nasty” comments about the swimmer by Frankie Boyle and was censured after it broadcasted.

Regarding the incident, Rebecca said:

‘It’s hard for a woman. A guy doesn’t get comments on his weight or his looks. But for women it is difficult because we get criticised for our weight or how we look.’