Simone Biles Pregnancy & Retirement Rumors Debunked: What’s Really Going On?
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The claim: Fox News reported Simone Biles announced retirement, pregnancy
“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 (sic),” reads the post. “This joyous revelation marks a new chapter in her life as she steps away from competitive gymnastics to focus on her growing family.”
It was shared more than 2,500 times in less than a week. Another version of the claim spread widely on Facebook.
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Our rating: False
No such report appears on the news outlet’s website, and a spokesperson said Fox News “never reported” what the social media post claims. Biles has not announced she is retiring, nor that she is pregnant.
Biles said ‘never say never’ to competing in 2028 Olympics
No such report appears in live or archived versions of Fox News’ landing page for coverage related to Biles, and the outlet said the claim is false.
“This was never reported by FOX News,” said spokesperson Sofie Watson.
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The content of the supposed report is also baseless. Biles has not said she is retiring or pregnant on any of her social media accounts, and there are no credible news reports to that effect.
However, she has spoken publicly about her professional future.
Biles told The New York Times in a pre-Olympics interview that the results of the Paris Games would affect her thoughts on a potential retirement, and she added that the sacrifices necessary to continue competing are “getting to be a lot now.”
After winning a gold medal for her vault performance Aug. 3 in Paris, however, Biles didn’t rule out competing in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“Never say never,” Biles said, as USA TODAY reported. “The next Olympics is at home, so you just never know. But I am getting really old.”
Biles, 27, is the oldest woman to compete for American gymnastics at the Olympics in more than 70 years.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about Fox News, including false assertions that the outlet didn’t report on former President Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush-money trial, that it reported Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was foreclosed and that an image shows a Fox News story saying they/them pronouns are part of a “far-left extremist plot.”
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact, Snopes and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.
