The 6 most ridiculous lies and hoaxes of the Sochi Olympics

Spreading misinformation is the newest, worst Olympic event

Opening Ceremony
(Image credit: (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images))

Having spent a considerable amount of time following the Olympics on Twitter, I can confirm the following: a unicorn won gold in the men's ski jump, Russian President Vladimir Putin is really just two short men stacked on top of each other, and all those laughable Sochi toilets have been replaced with equally hilarious mop buckets.

Okay, so none of that is true, at least as far as we know. But these Olympics have given rise to a great number of fictional story lines — some of them deliberately manufactured, others simply the products of a long-distance game of telephone.

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.