MILAN, Feb 6 (Reuters) - World skiing's governing body has moved swiftly to quash talk of ski jumpers injecting their penises with paraffin or hyaluronic acid to gain a competitive edge, but scientists and ski jumpers at the Winter Olympics say if true it would make perfect sense.
The Olympics' strangest sideshow blew up when the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Thursday it would be on the lookout for any evidence male ski jumpers were artificially enlarging their penises in a bid to manipulate one of the sport's rules.
WADA's comment came after it was questioned about a report in Germany's Bild which said the newspaper had discovered insider talk of the practice being used to alter athletes' ski jump suit measurement point, thereby securing a larger, more aerodynamic suit for the duration of the season.
Whilethe sport's governing FIS sought to dismiss the affair as "wild rumour" -- it said there has "never been any indication, let alone evidence" that the practice was being employed -- Slovenia's Olympic silver medallist ski jumper Cene Prevc told Reuters the reports were not revelatory to him.
"It is a topic that was spoken about quite a lot a month ago in the ski jumping world," Prevc, who won silver at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, said in an interview, adding that he had never done this, nor knew of anyone doing it.
FULL BODY SCAN
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.
While no athlete or coach said they knew of anyone practicing the method, female Norwegian ski jumper Eirin Maria Kvandal seemed to speak for many with her reaction.
"I think that's horrible," she said, wincing. "That's a big step to take to get an advantage."
The science, though, would appear to becompelling.
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 Elvira Pollina, Julien Pretot, Karolos Grohmann, Ursa Presern, Iain Axon, Liz Hampton, Tommy Lund, Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by Ken Ferris)
