Greek triple jumper Paraskevi Papahristou has been excluded from the national Olympic team for making racially abusive comments on her Twitter page, officials said Wednesday.
Papahristou made remarks "contrary to Olympic values and ideals," a Greek Olympic committee statement said, in reference to a July 23 tweet.
"With so many Africans in Greece .. At least the mosquitoes of West Nile .. will eat homemade food!" Papahristou wrote.
Later, after being dropped from the squad, Papahristou apologised.
"I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account," wrote Papahristou.
"My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values. Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races."
Papahristou, 22, won gold at the European U23 Championships. Her best result in senior competitions is 11th place in the 2012 European Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
Official figures show about 1.5 million of the country's 11 million population are migrants, including illegals, mostly from Albania, Asia and the Middle East.
