What is the Winter Olympics ‘penisgate’ scandal? Ski jumping under watchful eye after 'cheating' probe

The 2026 Winter Olympics have officially kicked off, and in the coming weeks, the best-in-class of global winter sports athletes will compete for their country's medals.

However, with any major sporting event, there's always concern around the latest sneaky tactics used to enhance performance. This is serious business, after all. The most recent emerging scandal? Penis injections in ski jumping.

Let's rewind slightly.

Back in August 2025, Norwegian Olympic medallists Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang were handed three-month suspensions for the tampering of their suits during the men's large hill event at the World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, earlier in the year.

While the athletes themselves weren't aware of the tampering, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) claims their teams used reinforced thread in their jumpsuits to give them an advantage.

It's thought that the suits were stiffened and had added surface area, because a large part of scoring comes down to the time and distance of a jumper's leap.

“There have been disqualifications in the past, many. It’s part of the sport,” Bruno Sassi, spokesman for the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) told the Associated Press at the time. “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.”

Both Lindvik and Forfang have served their time off the slopes and will appear at the Winter Olympics.

However, now a new scandal has arisen, and it's all eyes on ski jumping once more as a sport accused of foul play.

In fact, German newspaper, Bild, recently claimed that male ski jumpers are now injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid to make them bigger before suit fittings, meaning their outfits will be made bigger than they should be.

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The idea is that the more well-endowed someone is, the further they can fly off the slope when they jump.

"Every extra centimetre on a suit counts. If your suit has a 5 per cent bigger surface area, you fly further," said FIS ski jumping men's race director Sandro Pertile.

Hyaluronic acid isn't currently a banned substance in the Olympics, with Bild also claiming that foam padding was used in the past to achieve similar results - but FIS equipment chief Matthias Hafele says he can "rule out" that possibility, as visual aids would be too obvious.

However, World Anti-Doping Agency director general Olivier Niggli isn't buying the new theory just yet.

"I am not aware of the details of ski jumping, and how that could improve performance", he responded when asked what he thought about the situation.

"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."

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It would appear they're taking it pretty seriously too.

Ahead of the Winter Olympics, each ski jumper was measured with a 3D scanner to determine their stride length, which is measured from the lowest point in the genital area.

Ski jumpers' suits will now be fitted with a microchip in the fabric, too, to ensure they haven't been tampered with, and two FIS controllers and a doctor will be present to check things are all up to standard.

If this is the level of scandal we're dealing with before the Games have begun, this will be one worth tuning in for.

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