You really never know what's going to come up at the Olympics.
You really never know what's going to come up at the Olympics.
Thursday saw officials from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) address a growing controversy in the world of ski jumping, in which athletes are alleged to have injected their penises with hyaluronic acid to increase the length of their jumps.
The claims originate from an article in the German newspaper Bild published last month, and the alleged mechanics basically break down like this:
Ski jumpers want as much surface area against the air as possible to generate lift
Jumpers could get that by wearing extra-baggy suits
To prevent jumpers from getting a suit like that, they are 3D scanned each season with their suits fitted off those scans
With those genital injections, jumpers can increase the size of their groins during those scans
Said jumpers receive a little extra material in that area of the suit, which could cause significant gains in jump length
As one doctor consulted by Bild says, “It is possible to achieve a temporary, visual thickening of the penis by injecting paraffin or hyaluronic acid.”
To be clear, no specific jumpers have been singled out as potential culprits. The discourse is instead described by Bild as a "heated discussion behind the scenes."
This isn't the first time jumpers have been accused of manipulating their suits, but it is certainly the most outlandish way it's come about. Ski jumping is a sport where the athletes use technique and equipment to fight for the slightest advantage against the competition — just think, how different do these jumps actually look when you're watching?
And in this case, the gains could be real. As noted by The Athletic, an article in the Frontiers science journal found that a two-centimeter change in a suit represents an extra 5.8 meters in jump length.
All of... this led to an amusing scene at a news conference for WADA senior officials on Thursday. One of them, director general Oliver Niggli, pleaded ignorance, via The Athletic:
“I’m not aware of the details of ski jumping and how it can improve but if anything was to come to the surface we would look at anything if it is actually doping related,” said Oliver Niggli, director general of WADA, when asked about the allegations at a press conference on Thursday.
“We don’t do other means of enhancing performance but our list committee would certainly look into whether this would fall into this category. But I haven’t heard about that until you mentioned.”
President Witold Banka, meanwhile, insisted he would investigate:
Ski jumping is very popular in Poland (his home country) so I promise you I’m going to look at it,” he said.
As Niggli noted, it's unclear if this matter falls under WADA's jurisdiction, as it seems to be more of a matter of equipment manipulation than actual doping. And Banka could very well be joking, as many people have been throughout Thursday.
It's still something this sport is going to have to address in one way or the other, even if this turns out to be more of a hypothetical problem than one that's deciding Olympic medals.
Category: General Sports
