Then Donald Trump's immortal phrase "fake news" sprang to mind.

Not so in either case. Yes, pole dancers really do feel they deserve a stage in the Olympic theatre.

Actually, we are assured that these up-the-polers are not those skimpily clad young ladies who can be observed shinning up and down while sexily sashaying in Spearmint Rhino as punters eagerly stuff tenners into their thongs, but practitioners of a sporting art form that has genuine athletic and technical content.

Just like beach volleyball, eh chaps?

Astonishingly, pole dancing has been officially approved as a sport and granted "observer status" by the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), which apparently is the first step towards getting recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The answer is yes because Olympic recognition is now based largely on one thing - does it grab you by the TV eyeballs?

Thus Pole, as the International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF) prefers to be known, has been acknowledged by an international sporting body for the first time.

That is largely the result of a campaign by Katie Coates, a 41-year-old from the southern English county of Hertfordshire, who founded the IPSF and told the Daily Telegraph: "I feel I have achieved the impossible; everyone told us that we would not be able to get pole dancing recognised as a sport."

The IPSF emphasises that pole dancing is about "athleticism and technical merit", in line with "other Olympic standard sports such as gymnastics, diving and ice skating".

Oh yeah? If that's the case why not simply include it as an extra discipline in, say, rhythmic gymnastics?

They say that even though pole dancing may be closely associated with strip clubs, a performance does not have to contain an erotic element. But to catch the eye of the judges - and the TV cameras - you can be sure it will.

Just like beach volleyball, a fun holiday activity as much about bottoms and bikinis as lobbing the ball over the net.

Pole's authorities argue that it is not only a sport, but that it is a sport appropriate for all ages and audiences. The IPSF runs competitions for ages from 10 to 65, and for both sexes.

But does a broad, global public agree? Olympic authorities may decide it would be more controversial than it is worth, though I suggest there are overriding factors why, providing Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un haven't blown the world to smithereens in the foreseeable future, that we might well see pole dancing on the Olympic agenda.

For despite so-called modernising reforms the prime Olympic decision-making body remain an old boys' club, elderly chaps still with a glint in those rheumy eyes.

And you can be sure those eyes will light up when they make inspection visits to assess the merits of pole dancing, just as they did when beach volleyball came into view.

However, a "sport" can only become eligible for Olympic consideration if it meets three key criteria:

1: It must be signed up to the World Anti-Doping Agency, which Pole is.

2: It must be a full member of the GAISF, which Pole is now working towards.

3: It must have 50 national federations.

At the moment pole dancing has 20, but no doubt this number will grow.

Pole dancing's equivalent body in Britain, the British Federation for Pole Dancing, can now apply for national sports recognition through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

You can be sure it will be rubber-stamped by the easily-pleased politicos.

And some perspective can be gained by looking at what other bodies were given observer status by GAISF - among them the World Armwrestling Federation, the World Dodgeball Association, the International Union of Kettlebell Lifting (no, me neither) and the International Table Soccer Federation.

Such is the desire of the IOC to portray themselves as "cool" and pander to "yoof" and TV it would not surprise me if any or all of those activities were to be given an Olympic berth in Games to come, along with poker, chess and an Olympic Formula One Grand Prix, with some of the more traditional sports like wrestling and boxing given the elbow.

Indeed, the more the merrier. We could even envisage a supplementary Games for oddball sports run simultaneously. A sort of Olympic Lite.

We have already seen the trend with the inclusion at Tokyo 2020 of five new sports to meet IOC President Thomas Bach's demand for the Games to become "more youthful, more urban and to include more women".

Nothing wrong with that philosophy but I do question how a gold medal for climbing up a wall can be valued as highly as one for running a marathon or completing a triathlon.

But perhaps before we pass judgement we should assess pole dancing (the authorised version) on its merits as a potential sport.

The World Pole Sports Championships is in its sixth year and judging is split into four categories: flow, compulsory moves, creativity and deductions.

There are 11 required moves in a pole dance, but points are awarded for creative ways of linking them.

Forty-six pole dancers competed at the first Worlds in 2012 and there were 229 in 2017.

Five men competed at the first Worlds in 2012 and there were 40 in 2017.

All but three pole sport federations are run by women and 3,000 athletes compete at pole sports during a yearly cycle.

In 2015 and 2016 various people who pole dance shared photos on Instagram using the hashtag #Notastripper - something that some real strippers objected to, both because they perceived it as stigmatising sex workers and because they feel pole dancing is an art form they invented.

The argument being (as with pom-pom-waving, high-kicking cheerleading, another pursuit on a relentless Olympic mission) that it is no more absurd a sporting concept than synchronised swimming, beach volleyball and dressage. Or, dare I say it, ice dancing?

It used to be ballroom dancing seeking Olympic eligibility. Now it is pole dancing.

What next? Lap dancing? How about belly dancing (surely athletic enough for anyone and good physical exercise?) Or even dancing around a maypole?

Meantime, a legitimate and popular sport like squash continues to be kept queuing on the Olympic sidelines.

Perhaps its competitors need to swap shorts for thongs to get into pole position.