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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

‘Either Russia will be at the World cup 2022 or there will be no World cup’ – Vladimir Putin

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a specific statement attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin: that Russia would either take part in the 2022 World Cup or there would be no World Cup. FACTLY examined it in the context of FIFA and UEFA suspending Russian teams from their competitions after Russia’s military action against Ukraine. The review says those bodies announced the suspension on 28 February 2022.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

20-20 තරගාවලියකදී ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවට එරෙහිව මුලු ලකුණු 200 සීමාවට ලගාවූ පළමු ක්‍රීඩකයා පැතුම් නිශ්ශංක ද?

Publisher’s rating: Missing Context

The article examines a social-media post made before the fifth T20 match between Sri Lanka and Australia. The post said that if Pathum Nissanka scored another 29 runs, he would become the first player to pass 200 runs in a T20 series against Australia. The article says this “first player” claim was incorrect: it reports that New Zealand’s Martin Guptill had already scored 218 runs in a five-match series against Australia in 2020–21. To check the claim, the article says it first looked for reports in mainstream media, then consulted cricket-statistics websites, including Howstat. It reports that the data showed a player had exceeded 200 runs in a T20 series against Australia, identifying Guptill and his 218 runs. The article also points to Cricinfo for further details about players who reached or passed 200 runs in that 2020–21 series. The article distinguishes the record claim from Nissanka’s own performance. He did not score the 29 runs needed in the fifth match, making 13 before being dismissed. It reports that he finished the series with 184 runs—the highest individual total in that series—but says this did not make him the first player to pass 200 against Australia. The article also mentions David Warner scoring more than 200 across three matches during Australia’s 2019–20 tour of Sri Lanka, but its stated precedent for the five-match series record is Guptill.

MediaWiseSports

2022 Olympians are competing next to a nuclear power plant

Publisher’s rating: Not Legit

The claim concerned the industrial-looking towers beside Big Air Shougang Olympic Park during the 2022 Winter Olympics. The review says social media users identified them as part of a nuclear power plant. It concludes that the venue was instead built on the site of a former steel mill in Beijing’s Shougang Industrial Park, which had been renovated as a tourist hub. The review describes using a reverse Google image search to investigate the image. Searching it brought up similar images in coverage by CNN, USA Today and The Associated Press. The review reports that USA Today identified the venue as a former steel-mill site and said the towers were originally cooling towers—not evidence that the site was a nuclear power plant. The cited history further distinguishes the site from the claim: the steel mill closed in 2008, ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The review attributes to the Associated Press the explanation that the closure was intended to help clean up the mill’s image and its air. The venue was subsequently used for the freestyle skiing big air competitions and described as the world’s first permanent, city-based big air facility. The account therefore supports the conclusion that the towers’ industrial appearance and original cooling-tower function were misleadingly presented as proof of a nuclear plant.

FACTLYSports

First video call between Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina after Raina had gone unsold in the IPL 2022 auction

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented a video as the first video call between Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina after Raina went unsold in the IPL 2022 auction. The review’s central finding is that the footage was from an earlier Instagram Live in 2020, so it could not show a call prompted by the 2022 auction. The review identifies the earlier broadcast as a conversation in which the two selected a combined Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings team. To investigate the video’s provenance, the review says it used reverse image search on screenshots from the post. That search found a YouTube video with similar visuals, uploaded on 12 May 2020, described as an Instagram Live where the players picked an all-time combined CSK–MI XI. The review further identifies the live conversation as having taken place in May 2020. The date and content of that earlier broadcast are decisive: the footage predates the IPL 2022 auction and depicts a team-selection discussion, not a post-auction call. Thus the video’s presentation as a new conversation after Raina went unsold misrepresented the footage’s timing and context.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

බිංදු රහිතව ලකුණු 1000 පසු කළ ලොව පළමු T20 ක්‍රීඩකයා දිනේෂ් චන්දිමාල් ද ?

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examines a Facebook post claiming that Dinesh Chandimal became the first batter in the world to pass 1,000 international T20 runs without being dismissed for zero. Its conclusion is that he was not first. The review says Chandimal had reached the milestone before his first duck, but that several overseas players—and Sri Lankans Kusal Janith Perera and Angelo Mathews—had done so earlier. It also names England’s D. J. Malan among players who passed 1,000 without a duck. (The post’s claim is quoted in the review as: “එකම බිංදුවක්වත් නොමැතිව ජාත්‍යන්තර 20-20 ලකුණු 1000 සීමාව පසු කිරීමට සමත්වූ ලොව පළමු පිතිකරුවා බවට පත්වෙමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩක දිනේෂ් චන්දිමාල්ගෙන් නව ලෝක වාර්තාවක් !!” The review says: “චන්දිමාල් බිංදුවට දැවීයාම් එකක් හෝ නොලබා ලකුණු 1000 සීමාව ඉක්මවා ගොස් ඇතිවා සේම චන්දිමාල්ට පෙර ලකුණු නොලබා දැවී යාමක් වාර්තා වීමට පෙර විදෙස් ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩකයන් ගණනාවක් මෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කුසල් ජනිත් පෙරේරා සහ ඇන්ජලෝ මැතිව්ස් ද ලකුණු 1000 සීමාව ඉක්මවා ලකුණු වාර්තා කර ඇති බවයි.”) To check the “first” claim, the review reports that it looked for mainstream-media coverage of Chandimal’s supposed record, then consulted cricket-information websites and records, including Howstat and ESPN. It says the ESPN data supported the cases of Perera and Mathews, and reports Malan as another example. This evidence addresses the key issue: Chandimal may have met the runs-without-a-duck condition, but the cited earlier players contradict the claim that he was the first. The review further places Chandimal third among players who had passed 1,000 T20 international runs without a duck. (The review describes its checks: “අප මුලින්ම අවධානය යොමුකළේ දිනේෂ් චන්දිමාල් මේ ආකාරයේ ලෝක වාර්තාවක් පිහිටවූ බවට ප්‍රධාන ධාරාවේ මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කර ඇතිද යන කාරණය පිළිබදවයි.එහෙත් එවැනි වාර්තා දැකගැනීමට හැකිවූයේ නැහැ. ඉන්පසු ලෝක වාර්තා ආදිය පිළිබද වාර්තා සහිත පිළිගත්, ක්‍රිකට් පිළිබදව තොරතුරු ඇතුළත් වෙබ් අඩවිවල සදහන් කරුණු පිළිබදව අප විමසා බැලුවා.” It also states: “කෙසේනමුත් මේවන විට T20 අන්තර්ජාතික තරගවලදී වැඩිම ඉනිම ගණනාවක් ක්‍රීඩා කරමින්, ලකුණු දහසේ සීමාව ද පසුකර ඇති ලකුණු බින්දුවට දැවී නොගිය ක්‍රීඩකයින් අතර දිනේෂ් චන්දිමාල් තුන්වන ස්ථානයේ සිටිනවා.”) The distinction is between achieving the milestone and being the first to achieve it: the review accepts the former for Chandimal but cites earlier examples that disprove the latter. It does not provide the players’ individual milestone dates or reproduce the underlying statistical tables in the supplied excerpt, so those details cannot be independently assessed from this evidence alone.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

වයිඩ් පන්දුවක් පිලිබඳ තීරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඕස්ට්‍රේලියානු විනිසුරු රෝඩ් ටකර් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රේක්ෂකයින්ගෙන් සමාව ගත්තාද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerned a social-media post attributed to Australian umpire Rod Tucker, apologizing to Sri Lankan fans for not calling a delivery to batter Maheesh Theekshana wide. It circulated after the second T20 between Sri Lanka and Australia, a match the review says ended level before Australia won in a Super Over. The post used the words “Sorry all the sri lankans fans. I didn’t see it properly.” Fact Crescendo reports that it looked for reports of an apology in local and international mainstream media, then examined whether Tucker had made the statement through social-media accounts. The review says it found no such media reports. The Facebook accounts presenting the apology had been created on the match date, February 13, or the following day; the review also describes the accounts as fake and says users had pointed out errors in the English wording. It could not locate an official social-media account for Tucker, and says an older Facebook account it found had no posts. The review also contacted Sri Lanka Cricket’s media manager, Prasanna Rodrigo. According to the article, he said Tucker had not apologized to the cricket body and that no such apology by Tucker had been reported to him. The article’s conclusion is that no official apology had taken place and that the posts implying otherwise came from Facebook accounts created after the match. On the evidence described, the circulating post did not establish that Tucker himself apologized.

dpaSports

De openingsceremonie van de Olympische Spelen van 2012 in Londen liep vooruit op scènes uit de coronacrisis.

Publisher’s rating: Te zien is geen gigantische reus met een naald in de hand, maar Harry Potter-personage Lord Voldemort met een toverstok. Hij maakte samen met andere fictionele slechterikken, zoals Kapitein Haak, onderdeel uit van een eerbetoon aan de Britse gezondheidszorg, de 'National Health Service', en de Britse kinderliteratuur tijdens de vier uur durende openingsceremonie van de Olympische Spelen in Londen van 2012.

The claim concerns a scene in the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony that was said to anticipate the COVID-19 crisis. The review traces it to Facebook posts describing a “giant in black with a needle,” dancing nurses and children in hospital beds, and alleging that the scene became reality from 2020. It identifies the figure in the ceremony as Lord Voldemort, holding a wand, rather than a giant with a needle. The character appears alongside fictional villains including Captain Hook. The review places the sequence within a performance honoring Britain’s National Health Service and children’s literature. It says the segment appears from around minute 44 of the ceremony and describes the official Olympic website’s account of the scene: music by Mike Oldfield accompanies the tribute. Children are shown in the beds, and invited guests included young patients and staff from a London children’s hospital. The review describes a sequence in which the hospital scene shifts into night, J.K. Rowling reads from Peter Pan, and literary villains emerge before Mary Poppins nannies defeat them. The pandemic comparison leaves out that narrative context. The review notes that the scene depicts children in a hospital, while its account says COVID-19 hospitalizations principally affected older and vulnerable people, not children. Its description of the performance presents the villains as characters from British children’s literature attacking the hospital, not as imagery about a future pandemic. On the evidence supplied, the scene is a literary and NHS tribute, rather than a prediction of the COVID-19 crisis.