German Runner Smilla Kolbe Condemns Racist Abuse of Teammates on Social Media

The German 800m runner Smilla Kolbe has condemned the racist abuse of some of her teammates on social media after competing in the European Athletics Championships semi-finals. Speaking after finishing sixth behind Keely Hodgkinson, the 24-year-old made a point of extending a trackside interview to tell German TV: “I don’t want to imagine what it would be like if I wasn’t as white as I am.” [...] World Athletics have also made it a priority to tackle online abuse. At the end of 2024, the World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, concluded a study that looked at 1.4m messages sent to athletes by saying that the governing body was giving athletes tools to “proactively protect themselves against online abuse”.