Several news organisations misreported that world champion shuttler PV Sindhu has announced her retirement. While the badminton player did tweet out a statement that mentioned the word ‘retirement,’ it was not in context to the sport but related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
CLAIM
Times Now tweeted the image of Sindhu’s statement claiming that she has announced retirement. The tweet was later taken down and their article has now been updated with accurate details.
ABP News, too, published an article that mentioned the same claim but was later updated to incorporate complete details.
Website India.com also published an article with the title: “Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu announce retirement at the age of 25.”
Several social media users shared the same narrative on Twitter and Facebook.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found that the badminton player had taken to Twitter to share a statement titled as ‘Denmark Open was the final straw... I RETIRE.’
“Not being able to represent India in the Denmark Open was the last straw,” the statement reads.
The statement talks about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and struggles related to it but it nowhere mentions that she has retired from the sport altogether. Rather, she says that she has retired from “this current state of unrest. I retire from this negativity, the constant fear, uncertainty. I choose to retire from a complete lack of control over the unknown.”
“Most importantly, I choose to retire from substandard hygiene standards and our lackadaisical attitude towards the virus,” statement added.
Further, the statement mentioned that while she couldn’t take part in the Denmark Open, she will come back for the Asia Open.
She acknowledged that the statement may have given some a “mini heart attack” and said, “I guess I needed to get you guys to sit up and take notice.”
Evidently, several media outlets misreported that PV Sindhu has retired from the sport when the statement issued by her clearly mentioned that she will be back at the Asia Open.
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