Photo of Israeli swimmers calling for hostage release is digitally created and old; not from Paris Olympics

A photograph showing swimmers creating the words ‘Bring them home now!’ in a pool with their bodies is viral on social media. It is claimed that swimmers from Israel sent out this message at the Olympic Games 2024 currently being held in Paris and that they were referring to Israeli nationals held hostage by Hamas.

X-verified account @VividProwess tweeted the viral photo, with the claim that Israeli swimmers at the Olympic Games had found a way to get their message across, after being denied to wear a ‘Bring them home’ pin. At the time of this article being written, the post has gathered more than 9 Lakh views and has been re-shared around 11,000 times. (Archive)

I am so proud.❤️

The Israeli Olympic team was not allowed to wear the ‘Bring Them Home’ pin at the Olympic Games, so they formed a ‘Bring Them Home’ campaign of their own.

We cannot fully live our lives until all the hostages are back home from the hellhole called Gaza.🎗️ pic.twitter.com/kwoqe1Dift

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) July 27, 2024

News agency Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) also shared the photo with the same claim on July 27, accumulating almost 5 Lakh views and more than 2,000 re-tweets. (Archive)

A message from the Israeli Olympic team! 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/qGjjHBys6X

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 27, 2024

Alt News found that the claim was also viral on Facebook, with various users sharing the image with the claim that the Israeli swimmers had spelt out their demand at the Olympic Games in Paris.

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Fact Check

We ran a reverse image search on the viral picture, which led us to an X post by 124NEWS English, a news agency based in Israel. (Archive)

We noticed that this picture was uploaded on November 19, 2023. We also saw that the photo was credited to someone named Adam Spiegel.

A Google search with the name ‘Adam Spiegel’ led us to his Instagram account. Spiegel describes himself in his bio as a ‘fine art aerial photographer.’ On going through his timeline, Alt News could locate the viral photo. It was uploaded more than 7 months ago, on November 19, 2023. This proves that the photo is not taken at the ongoing Paris Olympics.

We then ran a reverse image search on the viral photo, which led us to another Instagram post from November 2023, by an account named @wingate_institute. In the bio, the user describes itself as a national institute for sports excellence based in Israel. The caption of the post, which is in Hebrew, translates to “Israel’s female athletes, who train at the Wingate Institute, the National Institute for Sports Excellence, under the leadership of coaches Svetlana Belcher and Risa Kunin – in a “cry” for the return of the abductees and raising awareness in the world of the crimes against humanity committed on 10/7/23 by the Hamas terrorists.” Moreover, the caption also names the female athletes who are featured in the photograph – Eden Belcher, Shelly Bobritsky, Ariel Nashi, Nicole Nakhshonov, Kati Kunin, Maya Dorf, Neta Robichak, Shani Shraizin, Noy Gazela and Aya Mazor.

We noticed that only 10 athletes were named, but the photo apparently showed many more of them. On examining the image, it became evident that some of the alphabets featured in the phrase were repeated, with the same athletes’ bodies photoshopped into multiple places. It is thus clear that the aerial photograph has been digitally created for the bodies of the athletes to spell out the phrase.

To sum up, we can confirm that the viral photo purporting to show Israeli swimmers spell out the phrase ‘Bring them back now!’ is from November 2023, and has been digitally created. The photo was not taken at the ongoing Paris Olympics.

The Olmypic Charter calls for maintenance of political neutrality from all participants and the transmission of such messages as the one portrayed in the viral photo are not allowed.

Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.

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