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Comcast Corp-owned NBC Sports said Jones, a cast member on
NBC's "Saturday Night Live," will be in Rio de Janeiro by Friday
and will cover live Olympics sports, meet the athletes and
"spread her passion for sports and the Olympics."
Jones, one of the leads in last month's "Ghostbusters" movie,
spent the weekend tweeting reactions, responses and words of
support to Team USA in events such as gymnastics, swimming and
tennis to more than 400,000 followers.
"Got to say I'm so proud there is two black girls in the crew to
rep for USA!!," Jones, who is black, tweeted on Sunday with a
video of Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas from the U.S. gymnastics
team.
Her tweets included video of her lively - and at times raucous -
reactions to watching Team USA's performance, cheering them on.
She caught the attention of NBC Olympics executive producer Jim
Bell, who tweeted at Jones asking "You're officially invited to
Rio. Want to come?"
"We're thrilled to have Leslie come to the Olympics," Bell said
in a statement. "She's a member of the family, and her passion
for the Olympics is remarkable."
Jones announced Monday that she was heading to Rio in a tweet
saying "RIO BOUND BABY USA! USA!!" with a 10-second video
showing her wearing NBC's Rio Olympics cap and waving a U.S.
flag.
The comedian almost quit Twitter last month after receiving a
barrage of sexist and racist abuse and harassment from a number
of users.
Twitter Inc interjected and permanently suspended numerous users
accounts for harassment and said it will redouble efforts to
quickly thwart abusive behavior and block repeat offenders from
the social media site.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bill Rigby)
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