The viral claim that Sweden had declared sex a sport and was organising a tournament has been found to be untrue, a DW fact-check report has revealed.
The internet has been stuck with the report that claimed Sweden had commenced the first ever global sex tournament with involvement of Greek participants.
Several international media platforms fell for this and reported it, including respectable South African media outlet IOL.
Also, in its report on the competition, the popular German media house RTL conducted a poll asking users: "What do you think about recognising sex as a sport?"
Anna Setzman, spokesperson for the Swedish Sports Confederation, said in a written statement submitted to DW news, debunked the claim, saying: “"All this information is false.”
She added, "Right now, false information is being spread in some international media about Sweden and Swedish sports. These are vigorously denied."
The whole speculation started when Göteborgs-Posten, one of the major Swedish-language dailies, reported that a Swedish man named Dragan Bratic was behind the whole drama.
It was added that Bratic owns several strip clubs and wanted sex to be classified as a sport. He submitted an application to become a member of the confederation in January of this year. The Swedish Sports Confederation confirmed to DW that there was an individual who claimed there was a sex federation and applied for membership, but the application was rejected in May.
"The Swedish Sports Confederation has drawn attention to the fact that in some parts of the international media news is currently being spread that a sex federation has become member of the Swedish Sports Confederation," Setzman said in the statement. "It is false information with the aim of smearing Swedish sports and Sweden."