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The World Anti-Doping Agency is investigating claims that ski jumpers are being injected into their penises to fly further. |Photo credit: Alex Slitz/Getty Images
The Winter Olympics officially kick off tonight at the San Siro Stadium in Milan.
It’s been 70 years since the Winter Olympics were last held in Cortina, and this year spectators can expect new events, political controversies and… hubbub surrounding some suspicious packages.
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Skimo
The new discipline of ski mountaineering – known as “skimo” – in which athletes “run up a mountain and then ski down it” “may or may not be best understood as an elaborate metaphor for the human condition,” says The Guardian . We hope it “does as well as ski ballet, bandy ball and military patrol” as well as “some of the other sports the Winter Olympics have offered over the years.”
ICE agent
Tensions are rising in Italy after it was confirmed that the U.S. immigration enforcement agency, whose officers were involved in two fatal shootings in Minneapolis, would send agents to “increase security,” ITV News reported.
There was “outrage” in Italy, but Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the incoming ICE agents were not “men with machine guns and masked faces… They are here because this is the department responsible for counter-terrorism”.
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unlikely stars
ITV News said that as Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards showed in the 1980s, Olympic champions “don’t always make it to the podium.” This year’s “unexpected heroes” could include U.S. ice dancer Maxim Naumov, who wants to honor his parents and lifelong coach who were killed in a plane crash in Washington, D.C., a year ago.
The Jamaican bobsleigh team will continue the country’s “tradition” in a sport that inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Speed skater Jutta Leerdam, the fiancée of internet star Jake Paul, is fighting to be seen as a hero: She was accused of “diva” antics after taking a “private jet” to Italy, the Daily Mail reports.
personal neutral athlete
Athletes holding Russian or Belarusian passports have been banned from many competitions since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. Therefore, as at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Russian and Belarusian athletes can only compete as Individually Neutral Athlete (AIN).
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But BBC Sport said several Russian athletes who were allowed to compete as neutrals were “linked to activities supporting the war in Ukraine”. For example, figure skater Petr Gumennik recently worked with and was coached by Ilya Averbukh, who was sanctioned by Ukraine.
family dynasty
NBC said the three Macuga sisters will “seek to take over the Olympic skiing world”: Lauren, an alpine skier; Ali, who stars in “Mogul”; and Sam, a ski jumper. To add to the family atmosphere, their younger brother Daniel is an “up-and-coming competitor” in the alpine skiing world.
A 17-year-old skier will compete with his 46-year-old mother in Mexico’s mini-Winter Olympics team in Italy. Alpine skier Lese Garciola has been named Mexico’s fifth athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics. He will compete in the same sport as his mother, veteran Olympian Sarah Schleper.
penis scandal
The World Anti-Doping Agency is investigating claims that ski jumpers are being injected into their penises to fly further. Bild reports that there are concerns that male athletes may inject hyaluronic acid into their penises to increase the size of their genitals, allowing them to wear larger ski suits that improve aerodynamics.
A study in the scientific journal Frontiers found that increasing the circumference of clothing by 2 centimeters reduces drag by 4% and increases lift by 5%. Therefore, theoretically, a 2cm increase in clothing size will increase the jump length by 5.6m. Olympians competing in the Olympics will have “microchips” implanted in their crotches to “fight cheating”, The Sun reports.