no sex championship is happening in sweden
“Times of India” is counted among the most popular and respected newspapers in India. A recent headline on its website read, “Sweden to host European sex championships soon.” According to the report, Sweden has officially included sex in the category of sports. Sweden will soon host a tournament to decide who fares best. In this, the participants will take part in the competitions every day, which will last for six hours. It was told that the competition is to be held in the city of Gothenburg from 8th June.
Many other websites and social media in the mainstream media also printed this claim. Apart from India, some Pakistani websites also ran this news. A Greek portal even wrote that Greek participants would also take part in the tournament.
Prestigious media house IOL of South Africa and website of Nigeria also ran this news. Popular German media house RTL ran a poll alongside the news of the contest, asking people, “What do you think about sex being recognized as a sport?”
Is this news correct?
Claim: Sweden has officially recognized sex as a sport and is going to organize its first sex tournament this week.
Fact Check: False
Sweden’s sports administration has denied any such event. “All this information is false,” says Anna Jetsmann, spokeswoman for the Swedish Sports Confederation. In his written statement to DW, he told DW, “At the moment some international media are spreading false news about Sweden and Swedish sports. We strongly deny this.”
How did it start?
Yotebogs Posten is one of the main Swedish language newspapers. According to its news, the role of a Swedish man, Dragan Bratich, is behind this whole drama. According to the newspaper, Bratij is the owner of several strip clubs. He wanted sex to get the status of a sport. In January 2023, he applied for membership of the Sports Confederation. The Swedish Sports Federation confirmed to DW that there was a man who claimed to be a sex federation and applied for membership. But his application was rejected in May.
Another major Indian media house associated with CNBC has given details in its news on how to participate in the tournament. Also, an email related to the alleged Swedish Sex Federation was also mentioned in the news. Interestingly, there is a website with this name, but it leads to a porn website with a different URL. A countdown is running for the “tournament” on this website, which claims to be live streaming the event.
The confederation rejects the talk of working together with any sex organization. Anna Jetsmann explains, “There is no sex federation that is a member of the Swedish Sports Confederation. This misinformation is being spread to tarnish the image of Swedish sports and Sweden.”
On the other hand, the alleged Sex Federation says, “It is a shame that the Swedish Sex Federation was not given the aid of two billion Swedish currency, which is allocated by the Government of Sweden to registered sports organizations.”
Sex taboos
Sex is a taboo subject in many countries. At the same time, Nordic countries are known for hosting some very unique sports events. For example, the competition of carrying the wife and running. Or, the International Sauna Championships, which were called off after the death of a participant. Although sex competition is not organized.
Many media groups of South Asia showed interest in running this news without any investigation and fact checking. A misleading video of India Today Group is also included in these. A website even wrote in its news that how knowledge of Kamasutra can help the participants and in the last paragraph of the news told that the news of championship is fake.
