Does a swimmer on the 2024 Japanese Olympic team, Yokasi Maogo, have a name that sounds like the phrase "I almost drowned" in Spanish? No, that's not true: There is no swimmer by that name on Japan's Olympic swimming team. While "Yo casi me ahogo" does mean "I almost drowned" in Spanish, it's not a coincidence, as the name is fictional. The woman pictured, and the winner of the fourth heat in the 100-meter women's butterfly, is Mizuki Hirai.
The meme appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on July 29, 2024. The post was captioned:
Anybody else catch this...🏊♀️🫣😂| #ONLYinDADE
Text across the top of the meme reads:
How do you say 'I almost drowned' in spanish
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Fri Aug 2 19:37:14 2024 UTC)
At the bottom margin of the photo is an "Only In Dade" logo and a sports chyron that reads:
WOMEN'S 100M BUTTERFLY
JPN YOKASI MAOGO
WINNER - HEAT 4
Google translates "I almost drowned" to "casi me ahogo." But "Yo casi me ahogo," more closely following the fake name as presented, also translates to "I almost drowned." A search on the worldaquatics.com website (archived here) for a female swimmer on Japan's team by the name Yokasi Maogo produced no results. (pictured below)
(Source: www.worldaquatics.com screenshot taken on Fri Aug 2 19:37:14 2024 UTC)
The Paris 2024 Olympic website shows the heats results for the women's 100-meter butterfly. The winner of heat 4 was a swimmer for Japan, Mizuki Hirai. Her olympics.com bio is pictured below.
(Source: Olympics.com screenshot taken on Fri Aug 2 21:01:52 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories was unable to find the source of the exact image used in the meme, but a DuckDuckGo search for "HIRAI Mizuki 100m heat four" returns a YouTube link (archived here) from a Singaporean public broadcast service, Mediacorp. The video, titled, "Japan's Hirai Mizuki clocks 56.71s in 100m Butterfly Heat 4 | Swimming | Olympic Games Paris 2024," was not available in the U.S. In the moments before the unavailable notice comes up, a thumbnail of Mizuki (pictured below left) is momentarily visible, likely taken within seconds of the image in the meme.
(Source: youtube.com screenshot taken on Fri Aug 2 21:01:52 2024 UTC)
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the 2024 Paris Olympics can be found here.
