Ten days into the 2026 Winter Olympics social media feeds are filled with snowy images of winning athletes and videos of the most spectacular performances.
However, the constant stream of news coming out of Milano-Cortina also includes AI-generated images and misleading claims, creating viral misinformation narratives around the event.
Social media users have been sharing posts (archived here and here) containing pictures purportedly showing Hungarian cross-country skiing athlete, Adam Konya, waving with a sticker on his glove reading “WE’RE ALL FED UP WITH ‘U’”.
Users claimed that Konya’s gesture was a stance against Ukrainian athletes that showed solidarity with skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified after wearing a helmet honoring dead compatriots.
However, the images were detected via SynthID as being partially digitally manipulated. Some evidence includes the text on the glove appearing very sharp and lacking natural distortion and the tape looking digitally overlaid rather than physically attached to the glove.
A Google Lens reverse search revealed that the original photo was shared on the official Team Hungary Facebook page. The picture was taken during a cross-country ski competition on February 8, in Tesero, and features Konya waving and showing the glove without the sticker.
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