A YouTube channel and Facebook (FB) page are falsely claiming that one of the Philippines’ bets for weightlifting, Elreen Ando, has clinched the country’s first gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The erroneous YouTube video and FB post, which emerged on Aug. 1 and 2 respectively, bore a headline and caption that read:
“CHAMPION !! 1st GOLD MEDALIST ng PILIPINAS sa 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS! Elreen Ando”
(CHAMPION !! 1st GOLD MEDALIST of the PHILIPPINES in the 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS! Elreen Ando)
This is not true. As of writing, the Cebuano weightlifter has yet to compete in the women’s 59kg event of this year’s summer Olympics scheduled on Aug. 8 at 9 p.m. Manila time.
Three old photos of Ando during her campaign in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics women’s weightlifting 64kg category were also passed off as her winning moment in this year’s Games, as depicted in the thumbnail of the false posts.
A reverse image search showed that the pictures were published by Philstar.com, PhilSTAR L!fe, and GMA News Online on July 27, 2021.
The spurious posts were published two days before gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo secured the Philippines’ first Olympic gold medal in Paris in the men’s floor exercise final on Aug. 3. Yulo became the country’s first double-gold Olympian after ruling the men’s vault finals in artistic gymnastics on Aug. 4.
The FB post was published by Showbizfinds (created on March 19, 2022) garnering 84,800 interactions, while the YouTube channel Showbizz Life (December 30, 2022) uploaded the video receiving 290,376 interactions.
