Ski jumping is all about seeing how far a skier can fly, and at the Olympics, some competitors may have found a cure for their own projectile dysfunction.
Anti-doping chiefs at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy are investigating claims that ski jumpers are injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises in order to enhance their performances.
It turns out size matters in ski jumping. Before each season starts, competitors go through a 3D scanner wearing only body-tight underwear. Their crotch height is also measured and their bodysuits, which can only have 2 to 4 centimeters of excess material, are designed based on these figures.
The hyaluronic acid can increase penis circumference by up to two centimeters, according to a story published by the BBC on Thursday, February 5.
The bigger the penis, the bigger the body suit, and any added size, particularly in the crotch area, can increase drag and lengthen an athlete’s jump by up to six meters.
“Every extra centimeter on a suit counts. If your suit has a 5 percent bigger surface area, you fly further,” FIS ski jumping men’s race director Sandro Pertile told the BBC. (FIS is the international ski and snowboard federation that oversees Olympic skiing and snowboarding competition.)
Olympic ski jumping Photo by Javier SORIANO / AFP
FIS communications director Bruno Sassi, however, added that there is no evidence any Olympian has turned to drugs for some extra girth.
“There has never been any indication, let alone evidence, that any competitor has ever made use of a hyaluronic acid injection to attempt to gain a competitive advantage,” he said.
The World Anti-Doping Agency addressed the scandal in a press conference on Thursday.
“I am not aware of the details of ski jumping, and how that could improve performance,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said. “If anything was to come to the surface, we would look at it and see if it is doping related. We don’t address other [non-doping] means of enhancing performance.”
The idea of men trying to look bigger down there is nothing new — not even in ski jumping. Just last year, the 2025 ski jumping World Championships were marred by scandal when two Norwegian competitors’ suits were found to have been adjusted in the crotch area.
Video evidence surfaced of coaches Magnus Brevik, Thomas Lobben and Adrian Livelten adding non-elastic stitching to the suits of competitors Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang. The coaches received 18-month suspensions and the athletes were suspended for three months, though it appears they did not know about the suit manipulation.
After that, Olympic officials added additional measures to try and prevent cheating.
“There have been disqualifications in the past, many. It’s part of the sport,” Sassi told the Associated Press in January. “But there had never been that kind of a brazen attempt to not only bend the rules, but like downright do something … to cheat the system in a way that it is very different from simply having a suit that is a tad too long or a tad too loose.”
Ski jumping at the 2026 Winter Olympics got underway on Thursday with official men’s and women’s training sessions.
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