Winter Olympics 2026: Penis injections, cheating biathletes and curling rows – stories we didn’t expect to tell

The Olympics. There’s nothing quite like it.

The world’s greatest sporting showcase – and a hub of weird and wonderful stories.

Think the Australian breakdancer, the ‘Muffin Man’ and the random guy in his swimming trunks at Paris 2024. The robots at Beijing 2022. The green diving pool at Rio 2016.

The Games always throws up the unexpected – and the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics has been no different.

Here are just some of the stories we didn’t think we would be telling from over the past few weeks.

The Olympics had not even got under way when the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) responded to claims that male ski jumpers were injecting their penises in a bid to improve sporting performance.

German newspaper Bild reported that jumpers were injecting their genitals with hyaluronic acid – which is not banned in sport – to increase their size before being measured for their suits.

The bigger the surface area of the suits, the more flight in the air.

Asked about the claims, Wada director general Olivier Niggli said: «If anything was to come to the surface, we would look at it and see if it is doping related.»

International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) communications director Bruno Sassi told BBC Sport: «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.»

That wasn’t the end of the headlines for ski jumping either. Later in the Games, Austria’s Daniel Tschofenig was disqualified from the men’s large hill individual event for wearing oversized boots – that were just four millimetres larger than the rules permitted.

Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid won bronze in the 20km individual biathlon – and then confessed live on TV to cheating on his girlfriend.

He admitted he had an affair three months ago and called it «my biggest mistake», adding it had been «the worst week of my life» since he told his girlfriend of six months about the affair.

«I had the gold medal in life,» he said.

The following day, his ex-girlfriend, writing anonymously in Norwegian newspaper VG, said she «did not choose to be put in this position».

She wrote: «It’s hard to forgive. Even after a declaration of love in front of the whole world.

«We have been in contact and he is aware of my feelings about this.»

It happened at Paris 2024 and it’s happened again at Milan-Cortina 2026. Breaking medals.

Early in the Games, two of the USA’s gold medallists, Breezy Johnson and Alysa Liu, revealed the ribbon had come away from their medals soon after they received their prize.

Johnson’s broke while she was being interviewed by BBC Sport and speaking at a news conference afterwards, she said: «So there’s the medal. And there’s the ribbon.

«And here’s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal, and yeah, it came apart.»

Andrea Francisi, Milan-Cortina 2026 chief Games operations officer, said: «We are going to pay maximum attention to the medals. Obviously this is something we want to be perfect when the medal is handed over because this is one of the most important moments for the athletes.»

Accusations of cheating. Swear words being hurled across the ice. Counter-claims of a sting operation with illicit filming. In curling?!

The drama started when Canada’s Marc Kennedy became involved in a heated verbal exchange with Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson towards the end of his side’s 8-6 win.

The Swedes believed Kennedy was repeatedly double-touching some of his stones, an illegal move.

But the cards were signed by both teams at the end, meaning the result would stand in a sport that is proudly self-governed by the players.

And then video footage found its way into circulation post-match. Was it premeditated?

The following day, Switzerland reported Kennedy for the same offence. World Curling then announced they would deploy extra officials for the remainder of the Games to check for double-touching.

Canadian women’s skip Rachel Holman was pinged for a double-touch, as was Team GB’s Bobby Lammie – both incidents not deliberate and the case of a lingering figure falling on to the granite.

World Curling changed its protocol again and teams could now request to have the stone delivery monitored if they had suspicions, and for a minimum of three ends.

Still with us?

We thought Snoop would be the only Dogg we saw at the Winter Olympics.

And then an actual one chased cross-country skiers down the finishing straight in the women’s team sprint event.

The Czechoslovakian Wolfdog had broken free of its owner and made its way on to the course in Tesero, where it then chased a camera over the line.

Greek athlete Konstantina Charalampidou said: «I became famous with a dog that came across the finish line and everyone wants to interview me now.

«I wanted to pet him but I didn’t have the time and I couldn’t find him afterwards.»

Throughout the season, Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate has skated to a mix of music from the Minions animated film series, all while clad in a yellow T-shirt and blue dungarees like the film’s characters.

Yet at the Olympics, it seemed that he would have to change his usual routine in the men’s singles because of a copyright issue.

But after negotiations with representatives of Pharrell Williams, singer of Happy – a song that appears in Despicable Me 2 and one of Sabate’s selections – an agreement was reached and he was granted permission.

It didn’t bring Sabate any luck, however, as he placed 25th.

The most niche of jobs.

At the curling we had the moonwalking technician ‘pebbling’ the ice while at the figure skating, we saw the incredible skill of the on-ice camera operator.

Up in Livigno, hats off to the ‘chief of colour’ line painters, spraying blue lines on to the snow with incredibly precise skill on skis, plus a nod to the course slippers, who took their moments in the spotlight by performing the Mobot (a Mo Farah pose) and Usain Bolt’s lightning pose as they cleared the halfpipe of loose snow.

According to organisers, there is a workforce of approximately 25,000 people at these Games, with 18,000 of them being volunteers.