World skiing’s governing body has dismissed the idea of ski jumpers injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises to gain a competitive advantage as a “wild rumour”.
One of the Olympics’ strangest sagas began when German outlet Bild reported talk within the ski jumping community of the practice allegedly being used to enlarge athletes’ measurements, thereby allowing them to use a larger and more aerodynamic suit in competition.
While there is no evidence of the practice being used and no allegations against any ski jumpers, the topic attained wider prominence when it was raised at a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) press conference on Thursday. Wada said it would look into the claims.
Skiing’s governing body, the FIS, has now weighed in on the issue, dismissing talk of the practice as “wild rumour”.
It said there has “never been any indication, let alone evidence” that the practice was being employed.
Slovenia's 2022 ski jumping Olympic silver medallist Cene Prevc told Reuters: “It is a topic that was spoken about quite a lot a month ago in the ski jumping world.” Prevc did not know of anyone actually using the practice, however.
Elite ski jumpers undergo a full body scan to ensure their skin-tight suits do not have extra material which would give them more lift as they soar through the air.
The crotch of a ski jumper’s suit is allowed to run to the bottom of the athlete’s genitals, meaning an enlarged penis would give them more potentially performance-enhancing material.
A study published by scientific journal Frontiers suggested a small change in fit can have real consequences once an athlete leaves the ramp, with computer modelling showing an extra 2.8 metres in jump length for each extra centimetre of fabric.
“The more surface area they have, the more surface they expose while in the air, the farther they go,” Marco Belloli, director of the mechanics department at Milan's Politecnico University, told Reuters.
“Obviously, it’s as if they were a glider, so the greater the wing surface, the farther they can travel.
“And so the trick is that during the measurement phase, they try to increase the jumper’s apparent body volume so that the suit ends up being larger, the wing surface increases, without significantly increasing the athlete’s mass, essentially, their weight.”
The issue has drawn attention partly because suit manipulation has previously led to sanctions in the sport.
Two Norwegian Olympic medallists, Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang, were suspended for three months last year after their team were found to have secretly adjusted seams around the crotch area of their suits at the 2025 World Ski Championships.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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