Ski Jumping Controversy: Ex-Athlete’s Shocking Claim

Cross-country skier and former Nordic combined athlete Mika Vermeulen is causing a stir with statements about cheating and trickery with the penis while ski jumping. “The first time I was supposed to take measurements, some of the older and more experienced jumpers came to me and said, ‘It’s very important that you tape your penis down because it will make your step size a centimeter or two lower,'” Vermeulen said on the Skirious Problems podcast.

Vermeulen explained: “The deeper your step is, the more air resistance you get.” With manipulations you can get several meters out of jumping. “It’s definitely comparable to doping.”

World association is now taking tougher action

However, the 26-year-old Austrian also emphasizes that these are memories from his ski jumping days. “I have no idea what’s going on in ski jumping these days,” he said. Vermeulen switched from combination to cross-country skiing for the 2018/19 season.

After the scandal surrounding the manipulated ski jumping suits of the Norwegian team at the World Championships last year, the world association Fis has tightened controls. Among other things, a system with yellow and red cards was introduced. A yellow card acts as a warning the first time an athlete is disqualified.

Vermeulen criticizes the punishment system

Vermeulen doesn’t think so. “If you are caught cheating, you should be banned for a certain period of time and not given a card,” he said and made serious accusations: “I can say this with 100 percent certainty: everyone who is disqualified in ski jumping and Nordic combined is cheating on purpose. And they justify it simply by saying: ‘Yes, yes, but everyone else does it too’.”

Speaking to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Vermeulen later said: “I’m not saying that everyone cheats. I’m just saying that you create a bad culture when cheating is not severely punished. And that’s a dangerous culture. You create a culture in which it’s okay to look for loopholes.”