Anyone who follows my @Statman_Jon account on twitter will know that I like to tweet about athletics. A lot.
The vast majority of my timeline is made up of athletes or people tweeting about athletics. I follow more than 500 twitter accounts and I enjoy all of them (naturally; otherwise I wouldn’t follow them).
I tend not to follow athletes who tweet inane things like: “baking a banana cake!” Similarly, I don’t follow people who take six tweets to say something that can be condensed into one, or people who clog up timelines with retweets of tacky overly-photoshopped random photos.
Instead, I go for quality over quantity. Here I’ve put together a definitive list of the 60 tweeters I find most entertaining, interesting and/or useful. Follow them by clicking on any of the buttons below, or follow this twitter list.
LATEST – Since the original post, I realised that I’d made a few oversights so I have now expanded this list from 60 to 75.
News and media
SPIKES
[twitter-follow username=”spikesmag”]
When it comes to social media in athletics, nobody does it better than SPIKES magazine.
IAAF
[twitter-follow username=”IAAForg”]
The global governing body of athletics. They’re kind of a big deal.
Athletics Weekly
[twitter-follow username=”athleticsweekly”]
The only weekly track and field magazine in the world
FloTrack
[twitter-follow username=”Flotrack”]
Specialising in distance running, these US guys tweet with humour.
Track and Field News
[twitter-follow username=”tandfn”]
Widely regarded as the bible of the sport.
British Athletics
[twitter-follow username=”BritAthletics”]
The British federation.
USATF
[twitter-follow username=”usatf”]
The US federation.
Hilary Evans
[twitter-follow username=”OlympicStatman”]
Tweets about all Olympic sports and is good at publicising doping cases.
Athleticos
[twitter-follow username=”athleticos_live”]
Provides live tweets and video coverage from UK meetings.
Vinco Sport
[twitter-follow username=”VincoSport”]
News and live coverage from British meetings.
EightLane
[twitter-follow username=”EightLaneNews”]
More coverage of athletics in Britain.
TracknField TMZ
[twitter-follow username=”Tnf_TMZ”]
A bit like TMZ, but with an athletics twist.
Athletes
Paula Radcliffe
[twitter-follow username=”paulajradcliffe”]
The fastest women’s marathon runner in history.
Andrew Steele
[twitter-follow username=”AndrewSteele”]
A talented 400m athlete and equally talented writer.
Leo Barker
[twitter-follow username=”decath10n”]
Decathlete who survived cancer and speaks openly about it. Also bloody funny.
Rikki Fifton
[twitter-follow username=”Rfifton”]
The British sprinter is in his element when tweeting witty comments about reality TV.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson
[twitter-follow username=”JohnsonThompson”]
The British heptathlete has the best twitter bio going: “Chronically indecisive so I’ve adopted two surnames and the heptathlon. Daley Thompson is not my dad.”
Andreas Thorkildsen
[twitter-follow username=”AThorkildsen”]
The two-time Olympic javelin champion tweets a lot about pugs and coffee.
Ato Boldon
[twitter-follow username=”AtoBoldon”]
The 1997 world 200m champ is now a great commentator.
Kelly Sotherton
[twitter-follow username=”KellySotherton”]
World and Olympic heptathlon medallist talks a lot of sense.
Ryan Whiting
[twitter-follow username=”RyanWhitingUSA”]
He’s a shot putter who knits. Why wouldn’t you follow him?
Craig Pickering
[twitter-follow username=”craig100m”]
Sprinter-turned-bobsledder-turned-entertaining-tweeter.
Dawn Harper-Nelson
[twitter-follow username=”DHarp100mH”]
The 2008 Olympic 100m hurdles champ is one of the best athletes in the world to interview.
Jazmin Sawyers
[twitter-follow username=”JazminJayne”]
Rising long jump star is also a talented singer with a great sense of humour.
Ross Murray
[twitter-follow username=”RosscoJammin”]
If ever there were an athletics reality TV show, this 1500m runner and Geordie Shore fan would be the star of it.
James Carter
[twitter-follow username=”MrJamesCarter”]
The retired 400m hurdler may not be the most popular athlete, but his controversial tweets make for compulsive following.
Andy Turner
[twitter-follow username=”andyturner110h”]
The Commonwealth sprint hurdles champion has great banter with other athletes.
Lolo Jones
[twitter-follow username=”lolojones”]
Love her or hate her, Lolo often tweets funny Vine videos.
Emma Jackson
[twitter-follow username=”emmajacko88″]
A naturally gifted 800m runner and naturally funny tweeter.
James Campbell
[twitter-follow username=”jcampbelljav”]
No-holds-barred tweeting from the British javelin thrower.
Charlene Thomas
[twitter-follow username=”CEThomas2013″]
The 1500m runner’s tweets are always entertaining.
Tom Parsons
[twitter-follow username=”tomparsons6″]
Another British athlete worth following.
Lauren Fleshman
[twitter-follow username=”laurenfleshman”]
US distance runner with a good sense of humour.
Warren Weir
[twitter-follow username=”warren_weir”]
The Jamaican sprinter is the king of Instagram.
Phoebe Wright
[twitter-follow username=”Phe800″]
If you didn’t see her ‘face swap’ of Galen Rupp and Mary Cain, go check it out.
Jack Green
[twitter-follow username=”jackpgreen”]
Down-to-earth hurdler on a journey into the world of other sports.
Max Eaves
[twitter-follow username=”polevaultmax”]
Naturally funny British pole vaulter.
Results and stats
Alfonz Juck
[twitter-follow username=”emenews”]
Golden Spike meeting director and compiler of EME News, the best daily athletics newsletter.
Ken Nakamura
[twitter-follow username=”KKenNakamura”]
Top Japanese statistician.
Ian Hodge
[twitter-follow username=”IanHodge7″]
Leading British statto. His speciality? “Anything that moves”.
Trackinsun
[twitter-follow username=”Trackinsun”]
Twitter account for the blog that covers leading results from obscure international meetings.
All-Athletics
[twitter-follow username=”All_Athletics”]
One of the best athletics stats sites.
Athletics Trivia
[twitter-follow username=”AthleticsTrivia”]
Regularly tweets athletics trivia questions.
Alberto Stretti
[twitter-follow username=”albertostretti”]
Italian athletics enthusiast with a passion for distance running.
Mirko Jalava
[twitter-follow username=”mjalava”]
Finnish statistician behind Tilastopaja, the best athletics stats site.
Japanese Running News
[twitter-follow username=”JRNHeadlines”]
Great coverage of Japanese distance running.
Steven Mills
[twitter-follow username=”Trackside2014″]
British-based athletics enthusiast.
Oscar Fdez
[twitter-follow username=”gabyandersengz”]
Spanish athletics fan.
Michel Boeting
[twitter-follow username=”one4onesports”]
Agent to many leading Kenyan athletes.
Kip Evans
[twitter-follow username=”Kip3vans”]
Great coverage of Kenyan athletics.
Joaquin Carmona
[twitter-follow username=”jokin4318″]
Another passionate athletics fan from Spain.
Alexander Orlov
[twitter-follow username=”AlexandrOrlov44″]
Keen follower of Russian athletics.
Friidrott I Fokus
[twitter-follow username=”Friidrottsfokus”]
Swedish-based tweeter covering all areas of track and field.
Flash Results
[twitter-follow username=”FlashResults”]
Results system used by many US meetings.
Writers
Jesse Squire
[twitter-follow username=”tracksuperfan”]
As his twitter handle suggests, he is a track superfan.
Jason Henderson
[twitter-follow username=”Jason_AW”]
Editor of Athletics Weekly.
Simon Hart
[twitter-follow username=”sihart”]
Athletics writer for the Daily Telegraph. Often breaks big stories before anyone else.
Martin Bingisser
[twitter-follow username=”bingisser”]
Swiss hammer thrower offers great insight into throwing events.
Michelle Sammet
[twitter-follow username=”michellesammet”]
British-based German writer.
Andre Lowe
[twitter-follow username=”AndreLowe_media”]
Award-winning Jamaican journalist.
Elena Dyachkova
[twitter-follow username=”ElenaRusAthletx”]
Used to work for the Russian athletics federation, often provides great insight into Russian athletics.
David Monti
[twitter-follow username=”d9monti”]
The go-to guy for all things related to US distance running.
Dean Hardman
[twitter-follow username=”DeanoSHM”]
Writes and tweets about all kinds of athletics topics.
Chris Chavez
[twitter-follow username=”Chris_J_Chavez”]
Writes for FloTrack but tweets a lot from own account too.
Kevin Liao
[twitter-follow username=”RunLiao”]
Lead editor of Spiked Up, Psyched Up.
House of Run
[twitter-follow username=”HouseofRun”]
Twitter account of the leading track and field podcast.
Paul Merca
[twitter-follow username=”paulmerca70601″]
US-based athletics writer.
Mike Hurst
[twitter-follow username=”MikeHurst_aths”]
No one covers athletics in Australia better than Mike.
Humour
Tom Bedford
[twitter-follow username=”Tom_Bedford”]
Son of Dave Bedford, Tom shoots from the hip.
AthleticSpectacular
[twitter-follow username=”JandBathletics”]
Twins Jody and Bayo are the world’s most famous athletics fans.
Gabriella Pieraccini
[twitter-follow username=”smokymozzarella”]
Funny tweets about athletics.
Dan O’Connor
[twitter-follow username=”drdanoconnor”]
Another tweeter with hilarious athletics observations.
Dan Peachey
[twitter-follow username=”danpeachey”]
More humourous athletics tweets.
Cezbollah
[twitter-follow username=”le_petit_cochon”]
Another funny athletics tweeter.
Jen725
[twitter-follow username=”jen725″]
And last but not least, another athletics enthusiast with entertaining tweets.