The Winter Olympic Games start tonight with the opening ceremony, and one of the most followed sports, ski jumping, will be investigated by the World Anti Doping Agency, WADA, after rumours began circulating that some athletes would get hyaluronic acid injections in their penises to get a special advantage.
Late January, German newspaper BILD published that some ski jumpers were having injections in their penises with hyaluronic acid, to increase the penis circumference, which would increase wingspan area of their suits. Even if it would only be one or two centimetres, a bigger surface area would help them fly further. According to an study by Frontiers, via The Guardian, a 2cm change in the suit is equivalent of extra 5.8 metres in jump length.
Jumpers are obliged to have 3D scans of their whole body using body-tight underwear to measure the extension of their suits. Players that would cheat this way would have had their penis enlargements already, as they can last for 18 months.
Last August, two Norwegian Olympic medallists, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, were given three-month suspensions after their teams secretly tampered their suits in the crotch area during the 2025 World Ski Championships.
WADA's response to rumours about penis enlargement in the Winter Olympic Games
These rumours, which have went to be amusingly known as the "penisgate", have not been proved in any way, but WADA president, the Polish Witold Banka, has promised to look into it. "Ski jumping is very popular in Poland so I promise you I'm going to look at it", he said in a press conference.
However, Wada director general Olivier Niggli said he is not aware of how it could improve performance. "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."