When it comes to the Winter Olympics, there are times when athletes have to go that extra kilometre or two despite excruciating fatigue. Or, in the case of Finnish skier Remi Lindholm, you have to battle through 30km of brutal snow blizzards while suffering from a frozen penis.
The 27-year-old hit the headlines after the 2022 Games in Beijing, but not for reasons that would have warmed his heart. Or warmed him anywhere, in fact, after he was left needing treatment for his unusual issue. He crossed the line in 28th place, some way behind the Russian winner Alexander Bolshunov.
Mercifully for Lindholm, the inclement conditions reduced the race distance from the initial 50km. But that proved of little help to Lindholm, who opened up about the consequences of racing for 76 minutes in freezing temperatures.
“You can probably guess what was on the ice when I finally got to the finish line,” he told Finnish media. “It was one of the worst competitions I’ve been in. It was just about battling through.”
You would have thought that Lindholm would have been relieved to thaw out. However, instead, the return of feelings in his lower limbs made it all the more painful. “When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable,” he added.
Olympic officials handed the competitor a heat bag in a bid to help his frozen parts. But incredibly, it wasn’t the first time that Lindholm had suffered from such an ordeal.
The same thing happened to him the previous year at the Ruka World Cup. However, he claims that Beijing was harder to deal with, literally, adding: “It was worse this time. Pretty unbearable pain.”
Lindholm was second last week in the Finlandia Ski Marathon Freestyle. It’s not yet confirmed if he’ll be putting his nether regions though the mill again at the next Winter Olympics in Milan in 2026.
