During the 2024 Paris Olympics, online users shared a rumor claiming Fox News reported Biles made two very big announcements.
Image courtesy of Daily Mail Report 2.0/Facebook
An online rumor claimed that Fox News reported major news about 11-time Olympic medalist and U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. According to the rumor — which dated back to at least late July 2024 — Biles announced her retirement after her first publicly disclosed pregnancy during the 2024 Paris Olympics, with Fox News purportedly revealing “she is ‘expecting a baby.'”
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At the same time users shared this rumor, Biles was busy winning some of those very same Olympic medals. The Associated Press reported, “The woman who didn’t think she’d even be here a couple of years ago will leave Paris — and perhaps her final Olympics — with three golds and a silver and something perhaps even more valuable: peace.”
One reader emailed Snopes in early August 2024, asking, “Is Simone Biles pregnant and retiring?” Another person inquired, “I have seen in two places that Simone Biles is currently pregnant and one place denying the pregnancy. Which is true?”
Social media users either copied and pasted the same text or simply shared the rumor in their own words. The copied-and-pasted text named Biles’ husband, Chicago Bears football safety Jonathan Owens, and read as follows:
JUST IN: Fox News Just Reported that America’s most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time, Simone Biles Announces Retirement at 27 After Securing Gold at Paris Olympics, Reveals she is ‘expecting a baby’ with her husband, Jonathan Owens. This joyous revelation marks a new chapter in her life as she steps away from competitive gymnastics to focus on her growing family.
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However, this rumor was false. If Fox News had truly reported about this matter or if Biles announced her pregnancy or retirement, prominent news organizations around the world would have picked up the story.
According to a search of both FoxNews.com and Fox News TV channel’s text captions, the news network did not report any developments about Biles announcing a pregnancy or retirement, nor did she make any such statements on her own in late July 2024. We also located no credible records of Fox News publishing and then removing any related content from its website. A Fox News spokesperson told Snopes by email, “This was never reported by Fox News.”
How the Simone Biles Rumor Possibly Started
In our initial research, the oldest post promoting this rumor appeared on Facebook in late July.
On July 31, a Facebook user named Daily Mail Report 2.0 posted (archived) in a Facebook group named Patrick Mahomes and Brittany Mahomes that Fox News “just reported” Biles announced her retirement and a pregnancy. As of Aug. 5, this was the oldest online record we found mentioning this rumor.
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The post linked to an article on usalod.com, a website that did not appear to be a trustworthy source of news. For example, the website’s lack of a terms and conditions and privacy policy contributed to its untrustworthy appearance. Further, some links on the website led to suspicious and abnormal redirects reminding us of past reporting about similar websites that promoted malware.
The website listed the name “Valerie Yancy” as the author of the story. We doubt that this is the real author’s name, as we couldn’t find any information about a blogger with the same name.
Further, at a glance, the text of the article read similar to basic stories generated by artificial-intelligence (AI) tools. While AI text and and image-detection websites perhaps aren’t yet entirely reliable, we did still note that, in addition to our own suspicions, all five of our tests detected the article as 100 percent generated by AI. Websites utilized for testing included CopyLeaks.com, GPTZero.me, QuillBot.com, ZeroGPT.com and Scribbr.com.
The story began as follows:
In a surprising and heartfelt announcement, Fox News has reported that Simone Biles, America’s most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time, is retiring at the age of 27. This news comes shortly after Biles and her teammates secured gold in the team finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, adding another remarkable achievement to her illustrious career.
Biles shared that she is expecting a baby with her husband, Jonathan Owens. This joyous revelation marks a new chapter in her life as she steps away from competitive gymnastics to focus on her growing family.
Biles, who has captivated the world with her extraordinary talent, resilience, and grace, expressed her gratitude for the support she has received throughout her career. “I am incredibly grateful for all the love and support from my fans, teammates, and coaches,” Biles said. “Competing at the highest level has been a dream come true, and I’m excited for the next chapter of my life with my growing family.”
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We reached out with messages to both the Facebook user Daily Mail Report 2.0 and the “Contact Us” page on usalod.com but did not receive any responses.
Several different Facebook pages also posted the same rumor. Similar to usalod.com, those pages’ posts also asked users to click a link to read a false article published on other websites.
Online Users Shared the False Simone Biles Rumor
The most popular post we located that promoted the rumor about Biles’ retirement and pregnancy appeared on Facebook. The post contained the same copied-and-pasted text and displayed over 129,000 positive reactions, 13,400 comments and 11,000 shares. It did not feature any links to articles.
Users also shared this rumor in further posts on Instagram, TikTok and X. For example, one TikTok user’s video (archived) received well over 250,000 views, reading, “So apparently Simone Biles is pregnant???? And she’s officially retiring.”
We will update this story if we receive any further details.
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