Twitter is bolstering its UK office with the hire of a new team member, Lewis Wiltshire, a former BBC sports social media editor.

Yahoo Finance reports that the loss of Wiltshire was a blow to the BBC, who was relying on Wiltshire for its coverage of the Olympics. He was to be part of a multi-platform effort to cover the event on and offline.

The announcement of this new hire was made – in usual Twitter fashion – on Twitter by Tony Wang (@TonyW), general manager of Twitter’s UK headquarters:

So excited about the team we’re building at @TwitterUK. Latest addition will be @LewisWiltshire, already a leader in social media and sports

— Tony Wang (@TonyW) January 13, 2012

Wiltshire will be starting at Twitter UK in March, and as the tweet implies, he will be working in sports in some capacity. Whether this means interfacing between Twitter and UK sports stars to get more of them on Twitter, helping sports journalists get the hang of following tweets, or something else entirely is yet to be seen. And, of course, there is the possibility that Twitter will offer some sort of special coverage of the Olympics itself.

(Top image: via Shutterstock)