A video clip of a fascinating performance by a figure skating couple at an international event has been viral on social media platforms, with a bizarre narration stating that such precision movements were performed, despite the male skater being blind. However, Factcrescendo team found these claims to be false.
Social Media Posts
Let’s look at this strange claim in detail. It describes a male figure skater named Babo who has been blind since childhood after a fire accident where he lost his mother, who was also an ice skater. Despite losing eyesight, Babo was passionate about ice skating and excelled in the sport and utilizes his ears to measure the distance using surrounding sounds similar to bats! The full text is shown below.
“This is not one of the ice skating videos. It's one of the most amazing performances in the history of skating, which brought tears to the 10,000 spectators present. Babo, the male dancer, has been blind since childhood. In a fire accident, his mother held him tightly in her arms and jumped from the 7th floor. His mother died, the little Babo became blind due to hemorrhage in his eyes and survived multiple bone fracture. His mother was an ice skater and Babo inherited that gene. Although he couldn't see anything, he still pursued his passion enthusiastically.
Here he is doing the famous tango "La Cumparsita" with his partner at the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki! His ears could measure the surrounding sound and distance like a bat. His female dancing partner is equally amazing. She danced with him so elegantly giving the sense of orientation and movements to her partner as if through telepathy so that even the most difficult synchronised movements kept perfect rhythm.”
This video was viral among Facebook users all over the world.
Fact Check
Using the Invid- We Verify technology, we found the original video of this clip. As claimed, the video was indeed linked to the World Figure Skating Championship, held in Helsinki, Finland, in 2017.
The clip can be found in the below video uploaded in 2020 titled “Ice Dance Free Dance | 2017 ISU World Figure Skating Championships Helsinki FIN” from the time stamp of 2 hours: 3 Minutes: 28 seconds onwards.
The names of the two dancers are Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin. Both these performers were from Russia and not from the US. They have been partners in skating for four years and have won many skating championships together.
After the performance, Ivan Bukin can be seen looking anxiously at the scores given by the judges, and even his body language and interaction with his team and fellow contestants clearly indicate that he could not be blind.
A short video of them can be watched below.
Details about this figure-skating couple can be found here. Archived.
Born in 1993, Ivan Bukin hails from a family who have excelled as ice dancers. His father, Andrei Bukin, is a 1988 Olympic Champion, and his mother, Elena Vasiuk, was also an ice dancer. However, there are no reports of her facing any tragic death due to a fire accident.
A report from 2018 mentions that both Ivan’s parents had visited to witness one of their son’s new rhythmic dance moves.
Following in his father's footsteps, Ivan and his partner have won several titles, especially in European championships over the years. However, the Olympic glory still eludes the couple as they finished fifth in the 2022 Olympics.
We also searched whether there were any blind skaters and found a report about a young woman called Cathy Williams from Wales. Her story can be watched below video.
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Conclusion
According to our investigation, we found out that the narration associated with the viral video is fabricated and not accurate. The male figure skater Ivan Bukin is of Russian origins and is certainly not blind. He is the son of champion figure skating parents and has been figure skating with his partner, the female dancer in the viral video, Alexandra, for years. The name of this Russian male figure skater is.
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Title:This is NOT a Performance by a blind figure skater from the US! (VIDEO)
Fact Check By: Kalana Krishantha
Result: False