Winter Olympics 2014: Kate Hansen's Sochi hall wolf revealed to be Jimmy Kimmel prank

Luger’s video claiming to show a wolf roaming outside her dorm room in Sochi has turned out to be a Jimmy Kimmel Live hoax

Ms Hansen was pretty happy with the success of her prank (Getty Images)

#SochiProblems has become one of the biggest stories of this year’s winter Olympics, with an accompanying Twitter handle now attracting more followers than the official @Sochi2014 account.

So when US luger Kate Hansen posted a short clip on Youtube claiming to show a wolf - or at least a large husky - roaming the corridor outside her room, a lot of people got pretty excited.

Wolf in my hall?!?

But it turns out the video - however much we here at The Independent wanted it to be true - was a well executed hoax orchestrated by American chat show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

Confirming his involvement, and suggesting a real wolf rather than a dog starred in the clip, Mr Kimmel tweeted: “I always say, if you're going to cry wolf - get an actual wolf to cry with.”

Going all out to pull of the prank, staff on his Jimmy Kimmel Live show built a replica of the Sochi dorm room in Los Angeles and rented the animal.

Thankfully, Olympic organisers were able to take the joke and said no disciplinary action is being taken against Ms Hansen, who placed 10th in the singles luge.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said: “It made me kind of laugh as an individual, not as an IOC spokesman.”

He added: “I don't think there's any harm done” and “I don't think it's anything serious.”

Ms Hansen is no stranger to viral fame - videos of her energetic pre-luge warm up dances have received hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube.