US table tennis team did not 'beat China to win gold' at the 2024 Paris Olympics
- Published on August 20, 2024 at 03:53
- 3 min read
- By Carina CHENG, Hailey JO, AFP Hong Kong
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"Unbelievable! The US table tennis team beat China to win the gold medal at the Olympics," read a simplified Chinese X post shared on August 5, 2024.
Attached to the post is a photo showing five women wearing Team USA kit.
The post was shared hours before the women's team event started at the Paris Olympics on August 5.
Similar claims were shared elsewhere on X in Chinese here and here, English here and here, French here and Spanish here.
Comments on the posts suggest some users were misled.
"Use Chinese to defeat Chinese," read one comment.
Another said: "Proof that only Chinese people can play table tennis."
The US team, however, did not beat the Chinese team to claim gold at the Paris Olympics
'Clean sweep'
China has dominated table tennis at the Olympics since it was introduced in 1988, and completed a clean sweep of the Olympic gold medals in table tennis in Paris by beating Japan (archived links here and here).
The US team were beaten by Germany in their opening match on August 6, and did not take home any table tennis medals from Paris (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of the table tennis medal table from Paris 2024:
A reverse image search on Google of the picture used in the false posts led to the same photo posted on the official Facebook account of USA Table Tennis on July 26 (archived link).
The post read: "Postcards from Paris with our Team USA Table Tennis women squad Amy, Rachel and Lily with alternate athlete Sally as well as Coach Gao at their practice session. #TeamUSA #USATT #TableTennis #Paris2024."
The post refers to table tennis team members Amy Wang, Rachel Sung and Lily Zhang, as well as Sally Moyland and coach Jun Gao (archived links here, here, here, here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo used in the false post (left) and the Facebook post (right).
NPR public radio reported that Wang, Sung and Zhang all grew up in the United States with parents who had immigrated from China and Taiwan (archived link).
AFP debunked other claims about the Paris Olympics here, here and here.
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