The Ski Jump Penis Cheating Scandal and what it could mean for college sports

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

The Winter Olympics have started! Now we all have a chance to learn about sports we typically don’t follow closely, cheer on our fellow Americans and bask in the Olympic athletic glory.

And what do we get when niche sports suddenly leap into the spotlight? Why, we get niche sport cheating stories, of course.

You’ve probably heard about this one: Last week, the Athletic (among other outlets) reported on the possibility of ski jumpers obtaining an illegal advantage … by injecting a compound that temporarily increases the size of the athlete’s penis.

From the Athletic:

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So far, so lurid, but there is science behind the allegations. Injecting the penis with acid would increase its size and give the ski jumpers bigger genitalia at the point their suits are measured by 3D scanners.

Temporarily enhanced measurements would theoretically mean athletes being given a bigger, looser suit and, like a sail catching wind, could allow them to make longer jumps. Research from the scientific journal, Frontiers, published last October said that a 2cm change in a suit represented an extra 5.8 metres in the length of a jump.

This diagram, via the British newspaper the Times, may help further explain the phenomenon:

As far as a potential cheating scandals go, I’ll admit this one is pretty funny. But do I think it’s funny because I don’t know anything about ski jumping or the safety of this procedure? And does it open the door for potentially similar rule-breaking in other sports … including officially sanctioned college sports?

I have no idea. So I called an expert.

Nelson Bennett is a board-certified urologist and microsurgeon who’s an associate professor of urology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine — and he was gracious enough to take my phone call.

And though he’s unaware of specific examples of the described event happening in competitive ski jumping, Bennett did confirm to me that injecting hyaluronic acid into a penis would have the desired effect for ski jumpers. “Hyaluronic acid is a safe compound produced by our bodies naturally,” he told me, noting that it is often a component of skincare products.

However, it isn’t a “performance enhancing drug” for athletes in the same way that say, human growth hormone (HGH) or steroids might be. A hyaluronic acid injection doesn’t improve blood flow or cardiovascular fitness. “This is not a procedure that will help you throw a ball faster or jump higher,” Bennett said, noting that such a procedure would typically be done for, well, performance reasons that have nothing to do with competitive athletics.