American stars have admitted it has been a 'funny thing' to see the bizarre 'Penis-gate' saga amid reports of ski jumpers injecting acid into the genitals in an apparent attempt to gain an advantage.

Unsubstantiated claims emerged ahead of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina of male ski jumpers attempting to enlarge their penis.

The suggestion was that this would increase the surface area of a skinsuit, which would help turn the jumper into a human glider.  

As a result, the bigger their bulge, the further ski jumpers would be able to fly and boost their chances of success.

The reports had followed a scandal that erupted at last year’s world championships after it emerged the Norwegian team had adjusted seams around the crotch to achieve that outcome.

Magnus Brevik, their head coach, his assistant coach Thomas Lobben and another staff member, Adrian Livelten, were handed 18-month bans in the fallout. The defending Olympic ski jump champion Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang were also suspended for three months, though it was found the athletes were not aware of the plot.

It was in the wake of that episode Bild, a German tabloid, offered the most illuminated tangent of the genre with their claim of acid injections. The details were vague, unsubstantiated and anonymous but spread like wildfire, even on snow.

American ski jumper Kevin Bickner, who is set to compete in his third Winter Olympics, admitted to seeing the funny side of the furore which he believes has led to more eyes being on the sport.

Bickner admitted there has been a focus on trying to make ski jumping equipment as efficient as possible, but stressed he was unaware of any athletes actually injecting themselves with acid.

‘We're close with several countries on the circuit, as far as I know, none of them are doing it,' Bickner told USA Today. 

‘If it was to be done, it would be, a one or two people type of thing and I guess, theoretically, there is a way for it to happen.

‘It's definitely the spot on a suit that can make the biggest difference, so there is a lot of emphasis on trying to make that part of your equipment as efficient as possible.

‘But I think there are methods that most people would come up with before deciding that they wanted to inject themselves with something.’

Bickner added: ‘It's been a funny thing to watch go down. It might not be the greatest thing to get attention for, but I've noticed a lot more people in America paying attention to ski jumping, which is cool.

‘So we're excited to represent our country. We're excited to have eyes on us now, and hopefully we can put this weirdness behind us and have people focus more on the sport because it's a really cool sport and we want to represent it well.’

Last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency were asked specifically about the use of hyaluronic acid, and whether that might trigger a probe.

Olivier Niggli, the director general of Wada, said: ‘I’m not aware of the details of ski jumping - and how this can improve - but if anything was to come to the surface we would look at anything if it is actually doping related.

‘We don't do other means of enhancing performance but our list committee would certainly look into whether this would fall into this category. But I hadn't heard about that until you mentioned.'

Eyes were on the sport this evening when the men's normal hill event took place in Predazzo.

Germany's Philipp Raimund earned victory by scoring 274.1 points from his two jumps.

Poland's Kacper Tomasiak finished as the silver medallist on 270.7, while there was a tie for bronze between Japan's Ren Nikaido and Switzerland's Gregor Deschwanden on 266.