Sweden Sports Federation Denies Claims of Declaring ‘Sex As A Sport’ in Sweden!

Sex is still taboo in some parts of the world, especially in some Asian countries. In such a scenario, when some of the leading newspapers in Sri Lanka and India reported that Sweden was planning to hold the first European Sex Championship after Sweden had officially recognised sex as a sport, naturally, many were curious about the news, which spread like wildfire.

Let’s look at the news reports and the resulting social media posts in detail.

Social Media Posts:

“𝙎𝙖𝙙 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 📰

𝙎𝙬𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙤𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙚𝙭 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 🏆.

𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙡;

𝙎𝙬𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙭 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩-𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙭 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠.

𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙭 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙭𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙞𝙭 🕡 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨. 𝘼 𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙟𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙭 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙤 𝙬𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙨.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙚𝙭 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 🏆 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙣 𝙅𝙪𝙣𝙚 8 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙭 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙨. 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙭𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 45 𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 🕐 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙨. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙥𝙡𝙚'𝙨 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙚𝙭 , 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙚𝙩𝙘 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙆𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙩𝙧𝙖.”

Facebook | Archived Link

Several Indian news outlets, including Times of India, Hindustan Times, News18, and India Today, have also published reports of Sweden declaring sex as a sex sport and reported that the first European sex competition would start on June 8, under the guidance of an organisation called the Swedish Sex Federation and went on to state that to determine who's best at sex, the contestants would engage in daily encounters lasting up to six hours!

Also, some of the leading media streams in this country have reported this news can be read here. Archived Link

Fact Check:

We checked whether the international media reported that such a competition was scheduled in Sweden. Although local and Indian media reported this news, since other leading global media outlets and European news agencies did not publish news about such a competition or even the fact that Sweden recognised ‘sex as a sport’, we decided to dig deeper.

Our attention was also drawn to an article by a Swedish news agency Goterborgs-Posten, On April 26, 2023, which stated that an application to classify ‘sex as a sport’ was rejected. Click here to read the web article. Archived Link

Another Swedish media outlet, TV4, dated January 19, 2023, stated that Björn Eriksson, chairman of the National Sports Federation, made it clear that sex will not be classified as a sport, which can be read here. Archived Link A similar article can be seen here.

Swedish Sports Confederation

Furthermore, responding to the recent viral claims, Anna Setzman, the head of communications at the Swedish Sports Confederation, clarified that the news of a certain Swedish Sex Federation had become a member of the Swedish Sports Confederation is entirely false and is part of a smear campaign to tarnish Sweden as a nation and Swedish Sports as seen below.

“The Swedish Sports Confederation has drawn attention to the fact that in some parts of the international media, the news is currently being spread that a sex federation has become a member of The Swedish Sports Confederation. It is false information to smear Swedish sports and Sweden. There is no Sex Federation that is a member of the Swedish Sports Confederation. All this information is false,” said Anna Setzman, Head of Communication and Press, Swedish Sports Confederation.

Also, to get the stance of the Swedish government on these claims, we contacted the Swedish Embassy in India and plan to update this article with their clarifications.

Swedish Sex Federation (SSF)

The viral news reports were based on the notice made by an organisation called Swedish Sex Federation, which had announced that a European Sex Championship would be commenced on June 8 in Sweden.

In reply to one of the queries from a fact-checking organisation, the Swedish Sex Federation had stated that the Swedish Sports Confederation had not yet classified sex as a sport yet due to various reasons such as the federation having to pay for training facilities, referees and referee training and courses etc.

The SSF respondent adds that whether the Swedish Sports Federation has accepted ‘sex as a sport’ or not, the European Sex Championship would proceed as scheduled. The fact-check article with SSF quotes can be read here.

Also, we looked at the social media handles of the Swedish Sex Federation, and they were active on Twitter with the latest updates and reported the arrival of the first contestants who were going to participate, as seen here.

To get further insights, we emailed SSF and the European Sex Championship Team at SSF clarified that Swedish Tax Agency had registered the Swedish Sex Federation for training and competition in sex. This registration was given after three (3) long years of control and fulfilled requirements by SSF.

The SSF team also added that Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) is financed with 2 billion Swedish kronor each year by the Swedish Tax Agency to help all sports organizations in Sweden. Yet the Swedish Sports Federation has denied SSF in their organization but has accepted e-sports into their organization.

So SSF clarifies that since Swedish Tax Agency had registered them, sex is recognized as a sport but not accepted by the Swedish Sports Federation.

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Conclusion:

Our investigation shows that viral posts claiming that Sweden had officially declared ‘sex as a sport’ are false and misleading. The Swedish Sports Confederation confirms that an organisation called ‘Swedish Sex Federation’ had not been registered under them, and the viral posts were a smear campaign targeting Swedish sports.

However, the Swedish Sex Federation (SSF) confirms that the Sex Championship will commence on June 8 as planned, irrespective of Swedish Sports Federation not declaring ‘sex as a sport’.