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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

Indian football team had to play the 1948 Olympics match with France on barefoot as the Nehru Government couldn’t provide shoes for the team

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns India’s first football match at the 1948 London Olympics, against France, and alleges the team played barefoot because Jawaharlal Nehru’s government failed to provide shoes. FACTLY examined that explanation, including whether the players had been supplied with footwear and why most did not wear it. Its account says the AIFF provided shoes, but Indian players were not accustomed to playing in them and generally kept them for wet or slippery conditions. Thus, going barefoot was a matter of playing habit, not the stated lack of shoes. FACTLY reports that the official 1948 Olympics report records nine Indian players appearing against France without shoes. It also says photographs show some Indian players wearing shoes in that match, consistent with only some choosing to use them. The match ended in a 2–1 victory for France, eliminating India at its first match of the tournament. The review also checks a related detail in the post: the captain was Talimeran Aao, not Shailendra Nath Manna. It cites the Indian team’s barefoot playing habits, including in practice, and reports that players continued to play barefoot in international tournaments until about 1952; domestic competitions made shoes mandatory in 1954. These details support the distinction between having shoes available and choosing to play without them.

APA - Austria Presse AgenturSports

Aktuelles Video zeigt Verschlechterung des Gesundheitszustandes beim Tennis-Profi Rafael Nadal

Publisher’s rating: Das Video zeigt Nadal bei einem Beinkrampf. Ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Corona-Impfung und seiner gesundheitlichen Verfassung kann ausgeschlossen werden. Die Aufnahme stammt von 2011 und damit etwa zehn Jahre bevor die Impfung überhaupt zur Anwendung kam.

The claim presents footage of Rafael Nadal appearing distressed at a press conference as a current sign that his health is worsening. The review says the clip had recently circulated widely and that some social-media posts connected Nadal’s appearance to Covid-19 vaccination. Its investigation identifies the footage as a much older incident, rather than a recent recording of his condition. To trace its origin, the review reports using Google reverse-image search. It says a result led to a video on the verified US Open Tennis Championships YouTube channel, dated September 4, 2011, whose description identified Nadal as suffering a painful leg cramp during that day’s press conference. The review says the US Open video shows the same scene as the viral clip. It also reports that Nadal attributed the cramp to heat and exertion from the tennis match beforehand, and said he had no other complaints. That chronology undercuts the presentation of the video as recent evidence of deterioration or as an effect of vaccination: the footage was recorded about ten years before Covid-19 vaccines were first used. The review also reports that Nadal said in January 2022 that he had been vaccinated twice, and quotes his spokesperson as saying he had experienced no vaccine side effects. The excerpt does not establish Nadal’s overall health beyond the reported episode and later developments; it establishes that this particular video depicts a 2011 leg cramp, not a current event.

El Detector / Univison NoticiasSports

El video Nevermind the slavery (No importa la esclavitud) es del himno oficial del Mundial de Fútbol Qatar 2022

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a video titled “Nevermind the slavery” that circulated on Twitter as the supposed official anthem of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The review identifies it instead as a satirical song by Norwegian comedian Rasmus Wold, criticizing FIFA’s choice of host country. It reports that Wold published the video on YouTube and Instagram on September 3, 2021, and on TikTok the following day; the Twitter post, unlike Wold’s own presentation, did not clearly identify it as satire. To check what was official, the review says it searched FIFA’s official YouTube channel and website. It found that FIFA’s official song for the tournament was “Hayya Hayya (Better Together),” by Trinidad Cardona, Davido, and Aisha, uploaded to FIFA’s YouTube channel on April 1, 2022. The review therefore distinguishes Wold’s satirical video from the official tournament song, rather than treating the video’s subject matter or circulation as evidence that it was an anthem. The review also describes the video’s critical content: imagery of workers in chains and apparent dead bodies, and scenes invoking FIFA, LGBTQ+ rights, and money. It says Wold described the song on YouTube as “no oficial” and characterized it as satire about the upcoming Qatar tournament. These details support the review’s account of the video’s purpose and provenance; its decisive comparison for the official-song claim is the separate FIFA release.

FACTLYSports

Video of Indian para-athlete winning a gold medal

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a widely shared video, circulated around the 2022 Commonwealth Games, said to show an Indian para-athlete winning a gold-medal race. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the athlete in the footage as Italian sprinter Ambra Sabatini, not an Indian competitor. It says the event shown was the women’s 100m final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, where Sabatini won gold. The review describes comparing the circulating clip with a shorter video of the competition uploaded to the International Paralympic Committee’s official YouTube channel on 16 October 2021. It reports that the athlete’s bib visibly showed the name “SABATINI,” and that the comparison indicated the circulating video was copied from the official-channel clip. The review also says it found the full event video and the Olympic website’s results for the race. The distinction is the athlete’s nationality and the event’s provenance: the footage does show a para-athlete winning gold, but the review identifies her as Italy’s Sabatini at the Tokyo Paralympics, rather than an Indian athlete. It further states that no Indian athlete participated in that final. Thus, the video’s race victory does not establish the claim that the winner represented India.

FACTLYSports

Indian sprinter Hima Das broke the record of Milkha Singh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns Hima Das allegedly breaking a record held by Milkha Singh, with the post also alleging that news channels ignored her achievement because she belongs to a scheduled caste community. FACTLY reports that it checked whether Das had broken any of Singh’s athletic records, including by searching for reports confirming the claim and comparing their individual best records as listed on Olympics.com. The excerpt does not provide a link or further detail about that comparison, but it gives the listed 200m times: Singh’s 20.7 seconds and Das’s personal best of 22.88 seconds. It also says Singh had better records in the 400m and 4x400m relay.