Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Weightlifting

Mirabai Chanu's Olympics silver medal to be updated to gold? Rumours heard on Twitter

The rumour game is going strong on social media about Mirabai Chanu's Olympics silver medal to be updated to a gold medal.

Mirabai Chanu (Source: getty)
X

Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal in Women's Weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics (Source Getty Images)

By

The Bridge Desk

Updated: 26 July 2021 1:53 PM GMT

India's 26-year-old weightlifter Mirabai Chanu created history on Saturday by winning the first-ever silver medal for the country in weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics. Competing in the women's 49kg category at Tokyo International Forum, Chanu lifted a total of 202 kg (87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk) during her four successful attempts across the competition. China's Zhihui Hou bagged gold with a total of 210kg and created a new Olympic Record while Indonesia's Windy Cantika Aisah grabbed bronze with a total of 194kg.

Just two days after her silver medal at Tokyo Olympics, a rumour has been doing the round on the internet that Mirbai's silver medal could be updated to a gold medal - a feat like this would be one of the greatest achievements by an Indian sportsperson. However, what led to this rumour taking shape? A post on Twitter by US citizen, Kyle Bass, whose designation reads Chief Investment Officer Hayman Capital Management has gone viral, where he says that the gold medal winner in women's 49kg Zhuhui Hou will be tested by anti-doping authorities at the Olympics.

Soon after his tweet, many netizens started assuming that Hou had already taken drug and concluded that it will suspend the existing gold-medal winner and Mirabai's silver would be updated to a gold medal.

However, the truth is that close to 5,000 athletes are being tested at the Olympics randomly and both in and out-of-competition samples are being collected. And chances of each of them testing positive is highly unlikely.

Later, senior journalist Boria Majumdar was also seen Tweeting on the same topic:

So we cannot simply assume that Hou will be tested positive, even though she can get tested. However, if her test returns as positive, then Mirabai would be India's first-ever woman Olympic gold medallist.

But that's again, looks too good to be true!

Next Story