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February 12, 2026<\/p>\n
4 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The physics of \u2018Penisgate\u2019 and how ski jumpers fly<\/p>\n A scandal involving allegedly enlarged ski suits ahead of this year\u2019s Winter Olympics has highlighted the intriguing physics behind ski jumps<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n Qiwu Song of Team People’s Republic of China competes in the Mixed Team Trial Round on day four of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games<\/p>\n From skating to curling, the thrilling sports of the Winter Olympics have plenty of science behind them. Follow our coverage here to learn more.<\/p>\n In the run-up to this year\u2019s Winter Olympics, and even as the Games have got underway, a scandal has been brewing: allegedly, some competitive ski jumpers may have artificially enlarged their crotch area by injecting their genitals with engorging chemicals or stuffing their underwear to create bigger bulges. The apparent reason: to alter their suit measurements\u2014ski jumpsuits are precisely tailored to jumpers\u2019 bodies\u2014and, reportedly, to gain a boost in jumps.<\/p>\n The allegations, first reported by a German media outlet and since dubbed \u201cPenisgate,\u201d have caught not only the Internet\u2019s attention but also the World Anti-Doping Agency\u2019s eye, although no athletes have been implicated by name.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Still the affair raises an important science question: How does a slight increase in a ski jumper\u2019s suit surface area actually change their jumping distance?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the crotch. According to rules issued by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), the body that regulates ski jumping, \u201ccrotch height\u201d measurements for an athlete\u2019s suit are taken by laser. So, in theory, if an athlete\u2019s crotch is temporarily a little larger, they would get a slightly roomier suit than they might otherwise.<\/p>\n The extra fabric might be enough to minimally lengthen their jumps by providing a little more lift in the air\u2014much like the patagium of a flying squirrel\u2014and, in turn, more distance. In a sport that\u2019s often decided by a matter of centimeters, any additional hang time can be the difference between gold and silver.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has a huge impact,\u201d says Lasse Ottesen, now race director for the Nordic Combined event at FIS and a former Olympic ski jumper. He said research conducted in the 2000s suggested jumpers with a single centimeter of extra material at the crotch could increase jump length by as much as four meters. And according to a more recent study accepted for publication by Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, scientists found that adding one centimeter to the overall circumference of ski jumpers\u2019 suits could lengthen jumps by 3.2 meters.<\/p>\n Athletes, coaches and regulators are aware of this. In January, before \u201cPenisgate\u201d went viral, several officials from Norway\u2019s ski jumping team were temporarily banned from competition after they were found to have altered athletes\u2019 suits with extra crotch stitching at last year\u2019s Nordic World Ski Championships. That incident went \u201cway beyond what we have ever seen before,\u201d Ottesen says, adding that the FIS is working to refine ski jumping regulations\u2014not least to make sure that \u201ceveryone is measured in the correct way.\u201d<\/p>\n Suit size is far from the only factor to influence ski jump lengths, however. Amy Pope, a principal lecturer in physics and astronomy at Clemson University, explains that how far a ski jumper flies is ultimately the result of physics.<\/p>\n To prepare for their jumps, ski jumpers race down ramps etched with ice grooves in the snow, Pope says. As they descend, the jumpers are aiming to minimize air resistance and the friction on their skis to juice their speed. By the time they reach the bottom, they\u2019re hitting speeds of about 60 miles per hour and a \u201chuge\u201d wall of air resistance\u2014imagine sticking your hand out the window of a car barreling down the highway. \u201cThat’s exactly what the athletes are feeling,\u201d she says. And then they jump.<\/p>\n At this point, if the jumper was in a vacuum, their trajectory would be parabolic, with the ideal launch angle of 45 degrees, says Philip Langill, an associate professor in the department of physics at the University of Calgary. A degree more or less, and they wouldn\u2019t travel as far as possible.<\/p>\n Of course, no one is jumping in a vacuum at the Winter Olympics. Instead the athletes harness \u201cthe power of the air around them\u201d to stay aloft longer, Pope says. They contort their bodies to maximize lift, reduce drag and fight the pull of gravity.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the sport\u2019s signature \u201cV\u201d style jump comes in\u2014the \u201cbiggest revolution\u201d in ski jumping in the last three decades, Ottesen says. In the early 1980s long jumpers would often keep their skis parallel in the air, he says. But by the 1990s skiers started to fly with their skis in a \u201cV,\u201d increasing their surface area and lift. \u201cAll of a sudden, we were jumping a lot farther than we used to,\u201d he says, \u201cand we were crashing more.\u201d<\/p>\n Do the athletes think about all this physics? Sometimes, according to Ottesen, at least\u2014in training, he recalls being \u201cmore observant\u201d of the forces acting on his body. But when it comes to competition time, muscle memory takes over. \u201cYou\u2019re not thinking about any of this at all. The body and mind are just doing what it\u2019s been practicing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 12, 2026 4 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm The physics of \u2018Penisgate\u2019 and how ski jumpers fly A scandal involving allegedly enlarged ski suits ahead of this year\u2019s Winter Olympics has highlighted the intriguing physics behind ski jumps By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron Qiwu Song of Team People’s Republic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[7099,23042,23041,5479,21322],"class_list":{"0":"post-44353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-fly","9":"tag-jumpers","10":"tag-penisgate","11":"tag-physics","12":"tag-ski"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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