The appetite for digital content smashed all records during last year’s summer Olympics in Paris.

And it wasn’t solely the sporting events that attracted more eyeballs than ever before across streaming and online platforms, but also the off-pitch content made by the athletes themselves.

According to Jérôme Parmentier, the International Olympic Committee’s VP of media rights and content partnerships, athletes in Paris “generated 8 billion social engagements,” adding that social media is now “completely embedded” into sports.

Speaking at a panel at the recently concluded IMGxRedBird Summit in the U.K. entitled “The Next Billion Fans,” Parmentier pointed to examples such as Henrik Christiansen, the Norwegian swimmer who went viral for his enthusiastic TikTok videos about the Olympic Villag

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