Tokyo 2020: Olympic athletes focused by false and deceptive claims

By Shruti Menon
BBC Reality Check

image sourceReuters

image captionSimone Biles withdrew from some events at the Olympics

As the Tokyo Olympics comes to an end, social media posts have been spreading misleading content about some of the competitors, and the events in which they competed.

We’ve selected some of the more widely-shared examples.

No, Simone Biles wasn’t stopped from taking medication

A viral post on Facebook – now with a warning flag on it from the social media platform – falsely claims that the US star gymnast stopped competing in some events because she wasn’t allowed to take medication for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Simone Biles revealed in 2016 that she was on medication for it.

When she pulled out of the women’s gymnastics team final last week, she said it was to focus on her mental health.

But unfounded claims spread widely on social media, saying that she’d been unable to take ADHD medication because it’s banned in Japan.

It’s true that Japan bans…

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