Viral

'Airpods' spotted on performer at 2008 Olympics

'Airpods' spotted on performer at 2008 Olympics
Person makes a cute robot out of two AirPods!
Olympics/YouTube

A throwback clip from the 2008 Olympics has stirred up a debate over a time travel conspiracy theory as someone appeared to be wearing an AirPod - despite the earphone launching years later.

In the clip posted by Justin (@yessirbrother) back in 2020, he noted in the caption how he had been "just appreciating the Beijing opening ceremony," when the camera panned to one particular performed which had a white plastic earphone in his right ear yet none of the other performers had this.

The shape and colour look similar to that of an AirPod, but given that this product wasn't launched by Apple until eight years later in 2016, people have questioned how it appears to be in a clip from 2008.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

"Yooo, I think I've found a real time traveller though. Beijing Olympics, 2008. This guy got AirPods though," the TikTok said.

"China gotta explain," he added.

The video was from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was uploaded to YouTube in 2019.


@yessirbrother

you know I was just appreciating the Beijing opening ceremony until #timetraveler #government #cinematics #WhatWouldHarleyDo #selflove #fyp #foryou

Since then, the brief video has received 3.9m views, 542,000 likes, along with thousands of comments from people who had a wide range of reactions.

One person said: "AirPods came out in 2016 though," while another wrote: "I‘m confused."

Someone else added: "That is crazy....No one else has AirPod," and a fourth commented: "YOO I JUST CHECKED ITS REAL."

However, those weren't quite as convinced and believed there was a reasonable explanation for this.

One person noted: "Bluetooth earbuds existed for a long time before AirPods."

"Once again not real. They are wired, you can't see because of the quality," anther person said,

Elsewhere, a 'Nike trainer' was spotted in 17th century painting.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)