PREDAZZO, Italy (AP) — The regulatory body for skiing on Friday dismissed as a “wild rumor” reports that ski jumpers are enhancing their groin area to gain distance as the Winter Olympics begins.
A report by the German tabloid Bild last month suggested some ski jumpers were injecting hyaluronic acid in their genitals or wearing a condom-like sheath before undergoing rigorous checks on ski-suit sizing. The newspaper said the manipulation would justify wearing a larger ski jump suit that could provide more lift and a longer flight to capture medals.
The report gained international attention this week after World Anti-Doping officials, in Milan for the 2026 Winter Olympics, suggested they were ready to investigate the matter, if it was doping related.
However, the international ski federation, FIS – the governing body for ski jumping – on Friday rejected the claims made in the report.
“This wild rumor started off a few weeks ago from pure hearsay,” FIS spokesman Bruno Sassi told The Associated Press. “There has never been any indication, let alone evidence, that any competitor has ever made use of a hyaluronic acid injection to attempt to gain a competitive advantage.”
The Bild report went largely unnoticed internationally until World Anti-Doping Agency Director General Olivier Niggli was asked about it in Milan on Thursday.
“If anything was to come to the surface, we would look at anything and if it is doping related. We don’t do other means of enhancing performance,” Niggli told reporters.
The suggestion of such manipulation quickly became a media sensation with some reports offering medical experts weighing in on the wisdom of injecting the acid naturally created in the body that lubricates joints and is used in moisturizing creams.
Asked to clarify whether WADA was investigating the matter, agency spokesperson James Fitzgerald told AP on Friday that hyaluronic acid was not on its list of banned substances, and referred to FIS for issues related to ski jumping suits.
The subject is particularly sensitive for ski jumping in the wake of a cheating scandal last year in which Norwegian team leaders were caught on camera manipulating ski suits at the World Championship in Trondheim, Norway.
Head coach Magnus Brevik, assistant coach Thomas Lobben and staff member Adrian Livelten were recently banned from the sport for 18 months for tampering with the suits before the men’s large hill event.
Norwegian ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang accepted three-month suspensions that allowed them to compete in this season’s events.
In the wake of the scandal, FIS introduced more rigorous equipment controls that includes checks before and after each jump and improved 3-D measurements to evaluate athletes in their uniforms. Microchips embedded in suits are also designed to prevent manipulation.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
An athlete soars through the air during a ski jumping, men's normal hill, training session,at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Predazzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
MILAN (AP) — Featuring tributes to da Vinci and Dante, Puccini and Pausini, Armani and Fellini, pasta and vino, and other iconic tastes of Italian culture — plus Mariah Carey hitting all the high notes in “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” aka “Volare” — an unprecedented four-site, dual-cauldron opening ceremony got the Milan Cortina Olympics officially started Friday.
It didn’t exactly feel like a Winter Games as the festivities began at the main hub, Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, where the temperature was a tad below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) and the sky was a crisp, clear azure all afternoon. Not a trace of clouds, let alone snow.
The Olympics returned to a nation that last hosted the sports spectacle 20 years ago. This, though, is the most spread-out Winter Games in history, with competition venues dotting an area of about 8,500 square miles (more than 22,000 square kilometers), roughly the size of the entire state of New Jersey.
Aside from San Siro, which opened a century ago and is home to Serie A soccer titans AC Milan and Inter Milan but is due to be razed and replaced in the next few years, athletes were slated to march in three other places, some carrying their country’s flag: Cortina d’Ampezzo in the heart of the Dolomite mountains; Livigno in the Alps; Predazzo in the autonomous province of Trento.
That allowed up-in-the-mountains sports such as Alpine skiing, bobsled, curling and snowboarding to be represented in the Parade of Nations without requiring folks to make the several-hours-long trek to Milan, the country’s financial capital.
For good measure, the Feb. 22 closing ceremony will be held in yet another locale, Verona, where Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” was set.
Another symbol of how far-flung things are this time: Instead of the usual one cauldron that is lit and burns throughout the Olympics, there will be two, both intended as an homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s geometric studies. One is in Milan, 2½ miles (4 kilometers) from San Siro, and the other is going to be 250 miles (400 kilometers) away in Cortina.
The people given the honor of lighting both following a ceremony expected to last 2 1/2 hours was a closely guarded secret, as is usually the case at any Olympics. At the 2006 Turin Games, it was Italian cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo.
As Italy welcomed the world Friday by showing off its heritage, the show produced by Olympic ceremony veteran Marco Balich began with dancers from the academy of the famed Milan opera house Teatro alla Scala reimagining 18th-century sculptor Antonio Canova’s marble works.
People wearing oversized, mascot-style heads representing opera composers Giacomo Puccini, Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi appeared on the central stage, before giant tubes of paint floated above and dropped silk of red, blue and yellow — the primary colors — before an early parade of various-color-wearing characters arrived in the stadium. They represented music and art, literature and architecture, appreciations for beauty and history and, above all, “La Dolce Vita” (loosely, Italian for “The Good Life” and the name of a 1960 film by Federico Fellini).
There were references to ancient Rome, the Renaissance, the Venice Carnival and the country’s noted traditions in various areas such as cuisine and literature, such as “Pinocchio” and Dante’s “Inferno.”
A runway walk showcased outfits — created by the late fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died last year at 91 — in the colors of Italy’s flag: red, green and white. And balladeer Laura Pausini sang Italy’s national anthem.
Another local touch: Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore, of “White Lotus” fame, was to introduce a section that took viewers through a century of past Olympics, with examples of evolving equipment, sportswear and music. And actress and comedian Brenda Lodigiani was invited to demonstrate the popular Italian hand gestures often used to communicate in place of words.
Plenty had been kept under wraps by organizers who said they sought to convey themes of harmony and peace, seeking to represent the city-mountain dichotomy of the particularly unusual setup for these Olympics while also trying to appeal to a sense of unity at a time of global tensions.
Another unknown: What sort of reception would greet U.S. Vice President JD Vance when he attended the ceremony in Milan? And what about the American athletes?
When new International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry was asked this week what sort of greeting the U.S. delegation would get when they enter San Siro in the Parade of Nations, she replied: “I hope the opening ceremony is seen by everyone as an opportunity to be respectful.”
Associated Press writer Colleen Barry contributed to this report.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
US Vice President JD Vance, center, attends the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Andreas Rentz/Pool Photo via AP)
Models perform during the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The Italian flag was raised during the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Italian actor Matilda De Angelis, left, performs during the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Performers at the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Susana Vera/Pool Photo via AP)
Spectators arrive for the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Tina and Milo, Olympics and Paralympics mascots, dance before the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Rapper Snoop Dogg poses for a photo prior to the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Vice President JD Vance greets people as he arrives for the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Spectators watch a pre-show ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
USA's Matthew Greiner slides down the track during a men's Luge training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Workers drive a golf buggy outside a compound next to the San Siro Stadium during rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, at , in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
United States' Erin Jackson warms up during a speedskating training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
