Peterborough: Louis Smith Quits Twitter

25 July 2012, 12:15 | Updated: 25 July 2012, 12:26

Peterborough gymnast Louis Smith has temporarily signed off from Facebook and Twitter to fully focus on London 2012.

Louis will perform his pommel horse routine on Saturday, aiming to secure a place in the final on the 5th of August.

The gymnast, who trains at Huntingdon Gymnastics Club, won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Louis said: "We have felt the pressure ever since the (London) Games was announced. 

Ever since we've been doing well and we won that medal in Beijing and the results have been happening the pressure has been building.

There's always going to be that expectation but for any GB athlete I think it's a little bit more than the other nations.''

As a result, Smith has said a temporary farewell to his 12,500 Twitter followers so he is not distracted by all of the positive support. 

He said: "I said goodbye to my followers on Twitter and swiped all of my notifications off, off, off, so yeah my phone has gone a bit quiet.

Obviously we want to build a reputation and go into different things after this to show the public who we are but this can reflect that or not in this Olympic Games. 

Depending what happens we can make a living out of it so I really want to put everything I can into this Olympic Games and if that means not tweeting and staying off Facebook and really focussing on what I have to do, I'll do that.

Some people see it as a distraction.

It's not really a distraction but it's not something I want to be too indulged with, feeding my ego and looking at all if the comments saying 'you're going to win gold' and 'you can do it'.

I just want to focus on what I need to do and preparing in the right way.''