Olympic athlete Husein Alireza has hit out at ‘fake news’ surrounding the video he took of gold medalist Thomas Ceccon snoozing in ‘a park’
Gold medalist Thomas Ceccon was caught on camera snoozing in ‘a park’ and some people connected it to earlier complaints he’d made about the 2024 Paris Olympic Village.
After calling the conditions of the athletes’ living quarters ‘subpar,’ a video of Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon was shared online.
Footage showed him asleep in what was reported by many outlets as simply a ‘park,’ however, the location was tagged as the Olympic Village grounds.
Wider context to the video has since been shared by the cameraman, fellow athlete Saudi rower Husein Alireza.
After losing out in the 200m backstroke final on July 31, Ceccon complained to reporters about the conditions in the Olympic Village, alleging there ‘is no air conditioning’ so it’s ‘hot’ and the food ‘is bad’.
“I’m disappointed that I didn’t make the final, but I was too tired. It’s hard to sleep both at night and in the afternoon,” he added. “Usually, when I’m at home, I always sleep in the afternoon. Here I really struggle between the heat and the noise.”
Alireza later shared a video of Ceccon – who has since bagged a bronze and gold medal in the 2024 Games – asleep on the grass in the Olympic Village captioned: “Rest today, conquer tomorrow.”
And well, you can see where social media users’ thoughts went, connecting the dots together despite the Italian swimming federation (FIN) clarifying the video of Ceccon asleep was unrelated to his earlier comments.
A FIN spokesperson told ANSA English ‘it was just a nap’ and there wasn’t anything else to it.
And Alireza has since addressed the footage going viral as well as the reporting of it.
The swimmer was spotted napping beside a bench. (Instagram/@huseinalireza)
The athlete took to his Instagram Story yesterday (August 5) to clarify where the video was taken and give greater context.
He said: “Lots of fake news coming out of my story yesterday. To clarify, the location was not a ‘park,’ but the Olympic Village.”
Indeed, many outlets reported the viral video saw Ceccon sleeping in a ‘park’, likely because the green areas of the Village are called ‘parks’ on the Olympics’ website itself.
The website states the Village has ‘a three-hectare landscaped park’ and ‘about seven hectares of gardens and parks’.
However, Alireza also added further context as to why it’s not that much of a big deal to see an athlete asleep on an area of green in the Olympic Village, explaining: “It’s also very common for athletes to take naps on the grass by the river.”
UNILAD has contacted representatives for Husein Alireza and Thomas Ceccon for comment.
