Seebohm’s excuse after narrowly missing out on first place in the women’s 100m backstroke, despite being the hot favourite, was that she missed a bit of sleep after losing track of time replying to social media well wishers.
Sometimes it’s the smallest of margins that separate the very good form the great and it appears Seebohm fell victim to a loss of focus, not realising she could have thanked everyone afterwards.
The silver medallist cried uncontrollably after the race and vowed to swim on to a third Olympics to rectify her loss to faster-finishing American Missy Franklin (58.33 sec).
“I guess when you swim that fast in the heat, then people put pressure and more pressure on you, saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to get the gold.’,” she told media.
“Maybe I just started believing that and just thought I’d already won by the time I had swum and I hadn’t even swum yet,” she said,
“I don’t know, I just felt like I didn’t really get off (social media) and get into my own mind.”
But a fellow Tweeter had little time for the excuse.
“How?” asked Breanna Tucker, was the forum to blame: “Was she tweeting from the pool?”
A good question, indeed.
