BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Tired from a long flight and frustrated over a bus ride taking forever, Kerron Clement let his feelings be known on social media.

Little did the U.S. hurdler realize his simple tweet would create such an international fuss.

“Didn’t think it would get mass headlines,” Clement said. “It was an innocent tweet.”

Not so much to a country gearing up for the start of the Olympics and very sensitive about any sort of criticism.

After a six-hour flight, Clement wasn’t in the mood for a snarled bus ride. He was less than complimentary in his tweet last week after the bus taking the athletes to the village had a hard time finding its destination.

Clement wrote: “Um, so we’ve been lost on the road for 4hrs. Not a good first impression London.”

The Olympic silver medalist insists he wasn’t trying to rip the host nation.

“I tweeted in the moment. Everyone on the bus was very agitated,” he said. “So I just tweeted it, thinking nothing of it. It went viral.”

In a hurry, too.

Now, he’s hoping he can make as many headlines on the track in London as he did off of it.

Clement is just rounding into form after hernia surgery in February. He only raced in one meet leading up to the U.S. trials, where he passed a stumbling Bershawn Jackson near the finish line to claim the last spot to London in the 400 hurdles.

“I really dug down really deep off that 10th hurdle,” Clement said. “I went for the line. I was leaning for my life.”

Now that he’s settled into his surroundings — practicing in Birmingham and playing ping pong at the hotel with teammates — he’s hoping to make amends for his earlier tweet.

“The village is nice. I love London,” he said. “I’ve been there several times. It’s a beautiful city. It’s very nice to have the Olympics here. Just having all the athletes in one area at the village, it’s nice.”

Still, he feels his tweet did some good.

“I really think that if I didn’t tweet, that they probably wouldn’t have fixed the transit system or make it better,” Clement said.