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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Sports fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about sports. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,766 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYSports

Photo showing Indian expressing his love for Babar Azam over Virat Kohli during recent India vs New Zealand match

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo said to show an Indian fan at a recent India–New Zealand match holding a placard that favors Babar Azam over Virat Kohli. The review says the placard in the circulated image reads, “SORRY VIRAT SIR BUT BABAR AZAM IS GOD OF CRICKET FOR ME…#7,” but identifies the image as altered rather than a photo from that match. To check the image, the review compared it with a similar photo that a commenter had found on ESPNcricinfo. In that earlier photo, the placard instead reads, “SORRY SACHIN SIR BUT M.S. DHONI IS GOD OF CRICKET FOR ME…#7.” The review reports that this original photo was taken at the Mumbai Indians versus Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL match on 17 April 2018. That comparison supports the review’s conclusion: the circulated version changes the placard’s wording and presents the older photo as an image from a different match. The described provenance and altered text do not support the claim that the photo shows a fan expressing support for Babar Azam over Virat Kohli at the recent India–New Zealand match.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaSports

A Blind Figure Skater From The US! (VIDEO)

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns a viral ice-dance clip presented as a performance by a blind American skater called Babo. The review identifies the man in the footage as Russian skater Ivan Bukin, skating with his partner Alexandra Stepanova, and says the performance was connected to the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland. Thus, the video’s performance is real, but the narration’s account of who is skating and his blindness is not supported by the review’s findings. To trace the clip, the review says its team used Invid-WeVerify to locate the original video, an upload titled “Ice Dance Free Dance | 2017 ISU World Figure Skating Championships Helsinki FIN.” It points to the performance at 2 hours, 3 minutes and 28 seconds in that video. The review reports that both skaters were from Russia and had been partners for four years. The review also contrasts the viral story about Babo’s childhood, blindness, and mother with biographical details it gives for Bukin: he was born in 1993, and his parents were ice dancers. It says Bukin’s parents were alive and had attended one of his performances in 2018, and notes that the clip shows him looking anxiously at judges’ scores after skating. These details support the review’s conclusion that the viral narration misidentifies the skater and invents his backstory.

فکت‌نامهSports

آمارهای علی دایی؛ چند گل با پا؟ چند گل با سر؟

Publisher’s rating: تنها کمتر از ۳۰درصد گل‌های علی دایی با سر بوده که مرور آنها هم درست‌بودن عبارت «خوردن توپ به سر دایی» را زیر سوال می‌برد. در بسیاری از این ۳۱ گل ملی، دایی (مانند بسیاری دیگر از گل‌هایی که با سر زده می‌شود) سر خود را به توپ می‌رساند و توپ را به سمت دروازه می‌فرستد.

FACTLYSports

Visuals of a blind ice skater’s performance

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing “Babo,” a skater said to have been blind since childhood after a fire that also killed his mother. FACTLY reports that the video instead shows Russian figure skaters Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin performing at the 2017 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki. The review says Bukin is not blind and found no reports connecting him to the childhood fire described in the post. To trace the footage, FACTLY noted that signs visible in the viral video named the 2017 championships in Helsinki. It then searched using relevant keywords and found a longer version on the International Skating Union’s official YouTube channel. The video description identifies the event, and the footage identifies the skaters as Stepanova and Bukin. FACTLY also compared screenshots from the viral excerpt with the YouTube footage, concluding that the excerpt came from that performance. The review further says that interviews and other performances of Bukin did not support the claim that he was blind. Its account therefore challenges both the identification of the skater as Babo and the accompanying personal story; it attributes the footage to Bukin and reports no evidence for the claimed blindness or fire accident.