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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 sprinter Hima Das won a gold medal in the Women’s 400-metre race at the CWG 2022

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a social-media video presented as showing Indian sprinter Hima Das winning the women’s 400-metre race at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. FACTLY’s review says the footage instead shows her 2018 race at the World Athletics U-20 Championship in Tampere, Finland. It distinguishes the real gold-medal win from the event to which the video was attributed: Das won the 400 metres in 2018, not at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The review describes checking visual details in the clip and tracing it online. It says a banner beside the track reads “IAAF World U-20 Championship TAMPERE 2018,” and reports finding similar footage on Das’s Facebook page. The review quotes her post as recalling that she became the first Indian to win a 400-metre gold at the World U-20 Athletics Championship in Tampere on 12 July 2018. The timing also contradicts the claim that the video showed a completed 2022 Commonwealth Games victory: according to the review, Das was scheduled to participate in the women’s 400 metres at those Games on 06 August 2022. Thus, the footage documented an earlier championship win, while the claim misrepresented it as a 2022 Commonwealth Games result.

FACTLYSports

A photo of MS Dhoni wearing a Muslim cap after accepting Islam

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing former Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni wearing a Muslim cap after accepting Islam. FACTLY reports that the image was altered: a cap was digitally added and the mark on Dhoni’s forehead was removed. The review concludes that the photo does not establish that he accepted Islam. To examine the image, the review says a reverse image search led to a 2010 NDTV Sports article showing Dhoni and his wife waving from a balcony. A further reverse image search found a similar photo taken from a different angle. FACTLY compared the viral image with the other photo and identified matching details, including Dhoni’s T-shirt, hand gestures, the background wall and shadows. The review’s account of those comparisons supports its conclusion that the viral photo was manipulated, rather than evidence of a religious conversion. It also reports that there were no reports of Dhoni converting to Islam.

dpaSports

Ein katarischer Sprecher hat mitgeteilt, dass jene Personen, welche an der WM eine LGBTQ-Fahne hissen würden, für sieben oder elf Jahre in Haft kämen.

Publisher’s rating: Das gezeigte Bild wurde am 72. Fifa-Kongress in Doha aufgenommen und zeigt Hassan Al-Thawadi. Weder in seiner Kongress-Rede noch anderweitig lässt sich die angebliche Aussage Al-Thawadi oder einem anderen katarischen Sprecher zuordnen. Ein Nahost-Experte erklärt, keine offizielle katarische Person habe sich derartig geäussert.

The claim circulated with a picture of Hassan Al-Thawadi, Qatar’s World Cup organising committee secretary general, and said people who raised an LGBTQ flag at the tournament would face seven or eleven years in prison. The investigation traced the image to the Alamy photo database: its caption identifies it as a picture taken at the 72nd FIFA Congress in Doha on 31 March 2022. The article also checked video recordings of that congress against the attributed statement. In those recordings, Al-Thawadi spoke about the opportunity to change perceptions of the Arab world, Qatar’s progress during the World Cup project, and welcoming the world. The investigation says it found no basis to attribute the alleged threat either to Al-Thawadi or to another Qatari speaker. It also reports that a Middle East expert teaching in Qatar said no official Qatari figure had made the statement. The article notes that the Twitter account that posted the claim had been suspended and that the tweet remained available in internet archives. The report distinguishes the unsupported threat from documented concerns about LGBTQ people’s safety and from separate remarks by Qatari officials. It says that homosexuality is prohibited under Qatari law, and describes statements by World Cup security chair Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari about removing a rainbow flag to protect its bearer and an inability to guarantee the bearer’s safety from attacks. Those issues provide relevant context, but the investigation found no evidence that the specific prison threat in the circulated claim had been made.

dpaSports

Elena Rybakina est fondu en larmes, en pleine conférence de presse, après avoir été submergée de questions par les journalistes notamment au sujet de la guerre en Ukraine.

Publisher’s rating: Attention, cette affirmation est fausse. Elena Rybakina s’est bien mise à pleurer lors de cette conférence de presse, mais pas pour les raisons qui sont évoquées dans cette publication.

The claim concerns Elena Rybakina’s Wimbledon press conference after her 10 July 2022 victory, asserting that journalists overwhelmed her with questions about Russia and the war in Ukraine and that this caused her to break down in tears. The review agrees that she cried during the conference, but its account distinguishes the political questions from the moment that prompted her tears. [S1: « Une publication (archivée ici), repartagée plusieurs fois sur les réseaux sociaux, affirme qu’Elena Rybakina aurait fondu en larmes, en pleine conférence de presse, après avoir été submergée de questions par les journalistes notamment au sujet de la guerre en Ukraine. »; « Elena Rybakina est bien mise à pleurer lors de cette conférence de presse »]

dpaSports

Lionel Messi et Cristiano Ronaldo s’embrassant pour protester contre l'interdiction de l’homosexualité au Qatar pendant la Coupe du monde.

Publisher’s rating: Fausse information, sur toute la ligne. D’une part, il s’agit d’un photomontage destiné à faire la promotion d’une émission de la Radio-Télévision Suisse sur l’homosexualité dans le monde du football. D’autre part, l’homosexualité ne sera pas interdite pendant la compétition au Qatar, qui n’a pas réclamé « l’exclusion » de Messi et Ronaldo de la Coupe du monde de football.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaSports

ශ්‍රී ලංකා – ඕස්ට්‍රේලියා ක්‍රිකට් තරඟය අතරතුර ගාලු කොටුවේ ගල් බැම්මේ විශාල #GoHomeGota පුවරුවක් ප්‍රදර්ශනය වූ අයුරු

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns a social-media image that appeared to show a large #GoHomeGota banner on Galle Fort’s stone rampart during the live broadcast of the first Sri Lanka–Australia Test at Galle International Cricket Stadium on June 29, 2022. The review says the image circulated with the implication that the banner was visible to the match broadcast. Its conclusion is that the image was edited, not an authentic broadcast view of a banner displayed there at that scale. To check the image, the reviewers examined footage of the first day of the Test broadcast on Sri Lanka Cricket’s YouTube channel. They report finding the matching camera frame during the sixth over, just before its final delivery, with Australian spinner Nathan Lyon preparing to bowl to Sri Lankan opener Pathum Nissanka. They compared that broadcast frame with the image shared online and said the banner had been added to the latter. The review further suggests the editing used part of a banner seen at a protest at Galle Fort on April 10; it presents this as an inference, not a confirmed editing history. The review distinguishes the altered image from real protests at the fort during the match. It reports that protesters were dispersed by police on June 29 and that people also protested at the fort on June 30. However, its account says photographs of those protests did not show a banner as large as the one in the viral image. Thus, the reported existence of protest activity does not establish that the large banner shown in the circulated image appeared in the live match broadcast.

FACTLYSports

Politicians and the media did not mourn the death of former Indian hockey player Balbir Singh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media post showing a shrouded body with a hockey stick and alleging that former Indian hockey player Balbir Singh Sr. was not given a worthy farewell. FACTLY identifies Singh as a three-time Olympic gold medalist and says he died aged 95 at a hospital in Chandigarh on 25 May 2020. Its review concludes that media coverage and expressions of grief from politicians contradicted the post’s allegation. (S1: “The former Indian hockey player Balbir Singh Sr died at the age of 95 at a hospital in Chandigarh on 25 May 2020.”; “At that time, all the mainstream media channels have covered the news of Balbir Singh’s death. Several prominent politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their grief over the death of Balbir Singh.”) To check the image’s provenance, the review reports a reverse-image search that found a similar photograph in a tweet by TV9 Network Executive Director Aditya Raj Kaul on 25 May 2020, identifying it as an image of Singh. It also says the Times of India published the same photo, describing Singh’s death in Chandigarh on that date after a two-year pulmonary illness. These details connect the circulated image to Singh’s death, rather than establishing that he was ignored. (S1: “On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar picture of a shrouded dead body with a hockey stick on it was found in a tweet made by TV9 Network Executive Director Aditya Raj Kaul on 25 May 2020.”; “The ‘Times of India’ published the same photo with a description, ‘Aged 95, Balbir Singh Sr. died in Chandigarh on this day last year (May 25, 2020) after fighting a pulmonary illness for two years’.”) The review further reports that mainstream channels published coverage, Singh was cremated with full state honours, and Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and other officials attended the funeral. It also cites politicians’ public condolences, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet on 25 May 2020. Taken together, the reported coverage, official funeral attendance and expressions of grief conflict with the post’s assertion that the media and politicians did not mourn him. (S1: “In May 2020, several mainstream media news channels have published articles and videos reporting the news of Balbir Singh’s death.”; “The three-time Olympic gold medalist Balbir Singh was cremated with full state honours on 25 May 2020.”; “Mourning the death of Balbir Singh Sr, several prominent Indian politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have tweeted on 25 May 2020.”)

FACTLYSports

Funny anecdote about an Arsenal football club player named David Dicks

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a social-media post that attributes a funny anecdote to an Arsenal player named David Dicks and shares an image of the supposed player. FACTLY’s review says it investigated whether the story and player were authentic, and reports that it found no Arsenal player by that name and no evidence of the alleged incident.