Fact Check: Viral claim about Sweden recognising sex as a sport is false

Hyderabad: Recently, a bizarre claim started doing rounds on the internet that claimed that Sweden has recognised sex as a sport and is going to organise a six-week-long first European sex championship soon.

Indian media outlets such as Hindustan Times, Times of India, India Today, WION News, News 18, News Now Nation, Latestly and OpIndia amplified the claim by reporting the same.

Right-leaning Twitter handle, The Tatva, in a tweet, claimed European Sex Championship will begin on June 8 under the guidance of the Swedish Sex Federation.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found in its investigation that the claim is false.

We ran a keyword search and came across a report by the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP) from April 26, 2023. It said that though a Swedish Sex Federation had applied in January this year to recognise sports as sex, the Swedish Sports Confederation (Swedish: Riksidrottsförbundet, RF) rejected the application stating it was incomplete.

It also mentioned Dragan Bratic, who runs several strip clubs in the Jönköping area, is the man behind the sex federation and wants sex to be classified as a sport.

Swedish Television network TV4, in a report from January 22, 2023, quoted the then chairman of the National Sports Confederation, Björn Eriksson, as saying, “It is clear that sex is not part of their business. I just hope this nonsense goes away. It will be a unanimous no from us.”

A press release by the RF dated April 26, 2023, also stated that the application of the Sex Federation was incomplete, which led to its rejection.

Hence, we conclude that the viral claim of Sweden recognising sex as a sport is false.

NewsMeter has also reached out Interest Policy Manager at the Swedish Sports Confederation, Cecilia Lunell, for a comment. The story will be updated when she replies.