Fact Check: Video of medal mix-up at 2019 figure skating competition in France shared as 2020 Olympics
A video of a medal mix-up at a figure skating competition has gone viral on social media with the claim that the incident took place at the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 1 Aug 2021 5:53 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video of a medal mix-up at a figure skating competition has gone viral on social media with the claim that the incident took place at the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The video was shared with the caption, "Olympic mistake moments."
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Fact Check
The claim is false.
NewsMeter performed an INVID search and found several YouTube channels that had posted the same video. However, the video descriptions and titles indicate that the incident took place at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Internationaux de France at Polesud Ice Skating Rink on 2 November 2019 in Grenoble, France.
The medal mix-up that took place at the ISU Grand Prix 2019 in Grenoble was also reported by a Russian state-affiliated media outlet RT in November 2019. The local official mistakenly gave the gold medal to a US skater instead of the Russian winner. The report read, "Alena Kostornaia, 16, who won her first-ever senior Grand Prix in Grenoble, burst into laughter after discovering that her medal had been awarded to American counterpart Mariah Bell, who finished third."
Similar images were also found on Getty Images and Alamy. All the girls laughed off the hilarious moment and Bell handed the medal to Kostornaia.
It should also be noted that no such mix-up has occurred at the 2020 Olympics as of now.
Evidently, a medal mix-up that took place at the 2019 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Internationaux de France was falsely shared as a recent incident at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
