Is ski jumping becoming a pole vault?

[ex-khobar Andy]

As ever, the Guardian is on to the story.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/ ... ed-by-wada

So you thought ski-jumping was immune from drugs? They go down a slope and sail through the air and whoever goes further, wins. You poor innocent.

Apparently this started with the Norwegians, who have much to answer for. Leif Erickson was Norwegian but by the time he found America he was from Iceland or Greenland which, as we all now know, are the same thing.

Norwegians found that by increasing the size of their ski jump suits in the crotch area they could increase the length of their jump. Apparently a 2 cm increase in the size of the suit can add 5.8 m to the jump. Last year two Norwegian jumpers were suspended by WADA (the World Anti Doping Agency) for messing with their suits. So apparently the Norwegians (and others? at this point it's speculation) have found way to increase their crotch measurements (I can be delicate when I try) by using clay in their underwear to improve the apparent size and thus mandate an extra precious centimeter or two in that area of the suit. And apparently they have found that an injection of hyaluronic acid will "achieve a temporary, visual thickening of the penis". Hence more suit and maybe a medal. In layman's terms, 'the bigger your nail, the more you sail.' (I just made that up and I am quite proud of it.)

At this point the scientist in me kicks in. I know that every successful experiment follows on dozens or hundreds of failures. Edison famously had 10,000 failures before he hit on carbon filament for his light bulb. We don't know how often they had "Sven, let's try this. We don't know if it will work but it might" before they found hyaluronic acid. Poor Sven, and Sjell, and Bjorn, and Olav, and Lars and Benny - failures all but they made huge contributions to science. I should perhaps rephrase that.

I'll keep you posted. I should perhaps rephrase that.

[Joe Guy]

That's one of the funniest posts I've ever read here at Plan B.

Thanks for the laugh, Andy...