By: Neha Aggarwal
#HugoCalderano Trends On Twitter
As the question whether the cheering of the Brazilian crowd inside the Riocentro – Pavilion 3 here at Rio was distracting the players or supporting them continues popping up, the Brazilian fans on Twitter were undoubtedly supporting their local hero Hugo Calderano with all the passion. As the 20-year-old made waves on the table, his fans made waves on twitter by tweeting about the Brazilian with the hashtags #GoHugo and #HugoCalderano on 7th and 8th August.
In no time, he was trending on Twitter in the Brazilian region.
While most of the Brazilian fans wished him Bravo and Parabéns (congratulations), many expressed how thrilling it was to watch him and some were educated that Table Tennis is an actual sport at the Olympics. Some went crazy how high Calderano tossed the ball and some were just happy that Brazil is at the world stage in Table Tennis.
But Calderano got the most attention from his female fans as a lot of them confessed their crush on Calderano with the “Heart” emoji in their tweets.
With Calderano getting his fame both inside the stadium and on Social Media, his incredible performance at the Rio Olympic Games has definitely won hearts of millions of Brazilian fans and became a house hold name this Olympics.
USA gets ping pong fever
Commonly called ping pong in the US, the sport of Table Tennis is still considered recreational in the country which probably has the most passionate sports fans. This Olympics, the social media savvy Americans got a glimpse of what professional table tennis looks like when Leslie Jones (Twitter: @lesdoggg), an American comedian and actress took the job over commenting on the Women’s Singles Round 3 between ISHIKAWA Kasumi and KIM Song I. Leslie Jones has been invited to Rio by NBC after her hilariously live tweeting the Olympic Games to her 458,000 followers on Twitter and went viral in the US.
She tweeted “Wow ping pong is serious” with a video of ISHIKAWA and KIM playing long rallies. Lesli commented “uumm, you guys, this is the most aggressive game of ping pong that I have ever seen, and I am scared”. The tweet got 700 retweets and 2315 likes.
Wow ping pong is serious pic.twitter.com/4CPk7Ie56O
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) August 7, 2016
In the digital era where fans are turning to the second screen to watch sport and are connected globally via social media, such conversations about table tennis only proves the excitement and the thrill the game brings which is a treat to watch for the fans worldwide.
