Video of Indian team at 2023 World Athletics Championships linked to Paris Olympics

What’s the claim? 

A video claiming to depict the Indian men's 4x400m relay team qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics has circulated widely on social media. A post on X (formerly Twitter) in Hindi, translated to English, states: “The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team has qualified for the Paris Olympics by finishing second in the Olympic Games qualification.”

Archived versions of similar posts can be found here and here. The video has also been shared extensively on Facebook with similar claims, with archived versions available here, and here.

Indian actor Anupam Kher and former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi also shared the clip, suggesting it showed the Indian men's 4x400 relay team qualifying for the Paris Olympics finals under the hashtag #OlympicGames.

However, both Kher and Bedi later acknowledged in the same thread that the video was old, though they did not delete their posts. Archived versions of these posts are available here, and here.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, our investigation revealed that the viral clip is old and unrelated to the ongoing Paris Olympics.

What we found

Using reverse image search on various keyframes from the video, Logically Facts found that Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien had shared the same clip on X on August 27, 2023 (archived here). Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also posted a video from the same event on August 27, 2023, featuring similar visuals and congratulating Team India for a top-three finish at the World Athletics Championships. The archived version of Modi’s video can be found here.

Further research led us to a YouTube channel named Brown Ballers (archived here), which published the same video on August 27, 2023. This confirms that the now-viral video predates the 2024 Olympics.

Comparison showing visuals in the viral clip and the YouTube video. (Source: X/YouTube)

We also found several mainstream media reports from August 2023 covering the World Athletics Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. During this event, India set a new Asian record in the men's 4x400m relay and qualified for the finals.

It is important to note that athletics events at the Paris Olympics have not yet begun. According to the official Paris Olympics schedule, all athletics events will start on August 1, 2024, with the 4x400m men’s relay scheduled for August 9, 2024.

The verdict

The viral clip, which shows the Indian team qualifying for the men’s relay at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, is being incorrectly shared as evidence that India has qualified for the Paris Olympics finals.