Dance at the Olympics opening ceremony wrongly linked to myocarditis-related deaths

Context

After the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, false information about the event began to circulate on social media. Following the official ceremony, a video (archived here) went viral on X (formerly Twitter) saying: "Watch: Olympic Opening Ceremony dancers performed the 'Myocarditis Dance' simulating athletes who've died suddenly on national television." So far, it has been viewed by 6.6 million people and shared by 11,000 others. Other profiles have also added similar descriptions to the clips of the dance in question. (archived here)

However, there is no evidence that athletes' deaths inspired the choreography. 

In fact

The video shows part of a longer performance from the opening ceremony. Dancers appeared on a floating stage on the Seine, while around 10,500 athletes sailed through Paris in a 3.5-mile flotilla of 94 boats. Many of the dance sequences were performed on this day to entertain the audience while athletes were disembarking safely.

The final part of the closing choreography appears in the video, which can be viewed on Eurosport at about 2:42:53. In this section, the dancers perform a dynamic routine that ends with them "tumbling" across the dancefloor.

The post claims that the deaths of athletes from myocarditis were recreated on stage. The term "Myocarditis Dance," as used in the video description, refers to inflammation of the heart muscle called the myocardium.

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium, frequently caused by viral infections, with a broad spectrum of clinical presentations from mild self-resolving symptoms to fulminant heart failure, arrhythmias, and death. It is a significant cause of sudden cardiac death in athletes. Some athletes have warning signs such as fainting or shortness of breath. Often, however, athletes do not recognize or report these symptoms, and the first sign is that the person suddenly stops breathing and collapses.

There is no evidence that the choreography mimics the medical phenomenon in question. The overall concept of the Opening Ceremony, designed by artistic director Thomas Jolly and Maud le Pladec, choreographer and head of dance for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, contradicts this interpretation.

"As Thomas Jolly has said on several occasions, the opening ceremony has been conceived as a celebration of togetherness and tolerance," a spokesperson for the Paris Olympic Games told Logically Facts. They also repeated Thomas Jolly's words: "You will never find in my work any desire to mock or denigrate anyone. I wanted to create a ceremony that would repair, reconcile, and reaffirm the values that are those of our Republic."

Such movement is also common in the modern dances performed at the event – they often use elements such as contact-release, floor work, fall, and recovery (the latter can be found in hip hop, breaking, house, and other related forms). Similar movements, choreographed by Maud Le Pladec can be seen here (1:19). They are also performed on the floor, are sudden and dynamic. This dance is part of the project Moto-Cross, which was created in 2017. Moto-Cross is an autofiction project that reflects on the past of the creator Maud Le Pladec, as well as on French political and music history since the 1980s. Furthermore, this project and its dancing movements are not at all related to athletes dying of myocarditis.

The verdict

The stated intention of the dance's artistic director, who is fully responsible for the program, does not suggest that the dancers intended the choreography to depict the tragic deaths of the players. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.