2nd Athlete Booted From Games Over Racist Tweet

Michel Morganella has some pretty unkind words for South Koreans
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2012 1:35 PM CDT
2nd Athlete Booted From Games Over Racist Tweet
South Korea's Kim Bok-yung, right, battles for the ball against Switzerland's Michel Morganella during their group B men's soccer match between South Korea and Switzerland.   (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

And Twitter claims Olympic victim No. 2. Unlike triple jumper Voula Papachristou, who got the boot from her Greek team after tweeting a racist remark about African immigrants before even making it to the Games, Switzerland's Michel Morganella did manage to play at the Olympics. But yesterday's soccer game against South Korea was what led to his undoing. The defender apparently had a tough time stomaching his team's 2-1 loss to the country, and took to Twitter to share the following, per the Evening Standard:

"I want to beat up all South Koreans! Bunch of mentally handicapped retards!" The AP reports that he also tweeted that South Koreans "can go burn" and referred to them as a "bunch of mongoloids." The 23-year-old is on his way home, and explained his behavior thusly: "After the disappointing result and the reaction from Korea that followed, I made a huge error. I wish to apologize to the people in South Korea and their team, but also to the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general. I obviously accept the consequences for my actions." His Twitter account has since been deleted. (More 2012 London Olympics stories.)

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