From Beijing to Paris: Evolution of Public Engagement,Sentiment, and Toxicity in Olympic Discussions on Reddit

From Beijing to Paris: Evolution of Public Engagement,Sentiment, and Toxicity in Olympic Discussions on Reddit | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article From Beijing to Paris: Evolution of Public Engagement,Sentiment, and Toxicity in Olympic Discussions on Reddit xinying ya, jiayu Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7589039/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study presents a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of Olympic discourse evolution on Reddit across five consecutive Summer Games (2008-2024). Through computational analysis of 472,128 posts and 12 million comments, the research uncovers evolving patterns in public engagement, sentiment dynamics, and online toxicity. Our findings reveal three key dimensions of digital Olympic engagement: (1) Temporal patterns showing consistent “attention aggregation” during Olympic periods with rapid post-event decline, demonstrating the ephemeral nature of digital sports engagement; (2) Emotional dynamics where sentiment progressively shifts toward positivity (45.8% daily positive content in later Games) while toxicity exhibits context-dependent patterns, including pre-event spikes in Rio 2016 versus delayed toxicity in pandemic-disrupted Tokyo 2020; (3) Content analysis revealing the variety of targets for toxic discussions, including sports, athletes, nationalities, brands, etc. This work offers novel insights into the complex interaction between major sporting events and digital community behavior in the age of social media. Humanities/Cultural and media studies Social science/Cultural and media studies Biological sciences/Psychology Social science/Psychology Sports Olympic Reddit User Activity Sentiment Analysis Toxic Content Topic Analysis Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 24 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 09 Jan, 2026 Reviews received at journal 10 Dec, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Nov, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 20 Nov, 2025 Editor invited by journal 29 Oct, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 20 Oct, 2025 First submitted to journal 20 Oct, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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