Are Olympians Really Injecting Their Dicks For Extra Lift? Inside The ‘Penisgate’ Controversy

In the very long list of things I expected to be talking about during the Winter Olympics, penis injections honestly did not crack the top 50. Yet here we are, discussing aerodynamics, hyaluronic acid and whether some blokes are literally putting the lift in “lift-off”.

So, what actually is Penisgate?

The saga kicked off after German newspaper Bild reported claims that some male ski jumpers were injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises to slightly boost their body measurements and qualify for a roomier, more aerodynamic suit. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has said it will examine the allegations, although it hasn’t announced any formal findings yet, so we’re firmly in allegations-and-investigations territory rather than confirmed scandal.

Funnily enough the people who actually run ski jumping are not thrilled to have to answer questions about competitors’ crotches. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has strongly rejected the idea that this is really happening, with communications director Bruno Sassi calling it a “wild rumour” that began as “pure hearsay” and saying there has “been no indication, let alone evidence, that any competitor has ever made use of a hyaluronic acid injection to attempt to gain a competitive advantage”. So far, no one has produced concrete proof that any Olympic jumper has juiced their junk for distance.​

And if you’re getting déjà vu, this is not the only time penises have reared their heads at the Olympics. I’m sorry I had to do it.

Anywho, from pole vaulter wardrobe malfunctions to runners accidentally flashing the world mid-race, this is definitely not the first time a rogue appendage has stolen focus from the actual sport.

Does size matter? Sort of…

On to the extremely unsexy mechanics. Ski jumping suits aren’t just cute onesies — they’re tightly regulated bits of equipment. Before each season, athletes have their body dimensions scanned, including crotch height and their suits have to match those numbers so no one turns into a human flying squirrel with a cape-sized advantage.

Associate Prof Dan Dwyer from Deakin University’s School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences told the Guardian that the total size of the suit can have a “significant effect” on lift and how far a jumper travels through the air.

He explained that, in theory, enlarging the penis with hyaluronic acid during that measurement session could slightly alter the scanner’s readings, which might allow an athlete to be approved for a marginally larger suit with a bit more surface area and therefore a tiny increase in lift. Sandro Pertile, men’s race director at FIS, has said that “every extra centimetre on a suit counts” and that if your suit has a 5 per cent bigger surface area, “you fly further”.​

So yes, the physics checks out on paper — add a bit of volume downstairs, gain a bit more fabric upstairs. Whether anyone is actually doing it is another question.

What does hyaluronic acid actually do to a penis?

I thought that hyaluronic acid was just something TikTok told me I had to buy for my skin, but it’s actually a gel our bodies naturally produce, and in medicine and cosmetic work it’s used as a filler because it attracts water and can plump up tissue. It already shows up in dermal fillers and has been used in procedures to increase penile girth.

Urological surgeon Dr Eric Chung told the Guardian that “injecting a penis with hyaluronic acid would make it bigger girth-wise”, but said you’d “need to inject a lot of hyaluronic acid” to get that effect. He also pointed out that the change is temporary: the filler is gradually absorbed or can migrate, so people who opt for these procedures typically need top-ups every six to twelve months if they want to maintain the result. It’s less “one-time super penis”, more “ongoing subscription model”.​

The complication list is where the jokes stop landing. Chung told the Guardian that “poorly injected technique or incorrect dose would cause penile pain, poor cosmesis (disfigurement), deformity, infection, inflammation, sensory change and sexual dysfunction”, and that in rare cases infection can spread and cause gangrene and “loss of the penis”.

Those aren’t just theoretical horror stories. A 2021 case report from Japan described a 65-year-old man who had hyaluronic acid injected into his penis for enlargement and later turned up with black necrotic lesions and ulcerations on his glans; doctors found extensive tissue death and performed a partial penectomy to remove the necrotic areas, noting the case was “exceedingly rare”. Another case report from Australian clinicians detailed a 31-year-old man who had previously received penile filler at a cosmetic clinic and later developed severe penile cellulitis and septic shock after unprotected sex, needing intensive care and surgical drainage. A month after admission he had “significant superficial skin loss” on the penis, though he eventually regained normal urinary and sexual function.

That’s a lot of risk for a few extra centimetres of fabric.​

Part of why this whole thing feels so absurd is that hyaluronic acid is everywhere right now. It’s in your serum, your under-eye drops and your mate’s lip filler. Health authorities like the US Food and Drug Administration have approved certain hyaluronic acid dermal fillers for specific uses on the face and hands, and Harvard Health notes that one advantage of these fillers is that they can be dissolved with an enzyme if there are complications or someone hates the result.​

So whether Penisgate turns out to be a genuine doping scandal or just a very elaborate Olympic myth, the takeaway is pretty straightforward: using cosmetic filler in one of the most sensitive parts of your body to chase a hypothetical aerodynamic gain is a massive gamble. And given this is hardly the first time a rogue penis has hijacked the sporting spotlight, maybe the Olympic crotch region has had enough drama for one lifetime.​​