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Sochi, Russia • You might have seen the video posted online by Kate Hansen, the American luger who attends Brigham Young University, that purports to show a wolf roaming the halls of her housing complex at the Sochi Olympics.
Turns out it was a prank.
Late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel helped Hansen pull off the gag, which showed a wolf roaming a hallway. The video got more than 1 million hits on YouTube, and Hansen appeared on Kimmel's show Thursday night to explain how they did it.
Evidently, Kimmel had Hansen take a photo of the hallway outside her room then had his show's art department build a life-sized replica in his studio. Kimmel then arranged for a real timber wolf to wander the hallway, shot the video and had Hansen post it.
"Honestly, there was a little more backlash than I thought there'd be," Hansen told him in her interview from Sochi. "Security started freaking out because technically there was a breach. You know, athlete safety. It kind of went a little crazy over here."
- Michael C. Lewis