Remi Lindholm, the Finnish cross-country skier who gained attention for a frozen penis during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, has been excluded from Finland's team for the 2026 Games in Italy after suffering a stress fracture in his sacrum. The 28-year-old injured his lower back during training in May. This marks another setback for Lindholm following his painful experience in Beijing.
Remi Lindholm's Olympic journey has been marked by unusual hardships. During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Finnish skier competed in the men's 50km cross-country skiing event, which organizers shortened to 30km due to brutal winds and temperatures of -17C. Lindholm finished 28th out of 61 competitors in one hour and 16 minutes, but the race left him in agony after his penis froze—a condition he described as happening for the second time in his career, the first during the Ruka World Cup the previous year.
"You can probably guess what was on the ice when I got to the finish line," Lindholm told reporters. "It was one of the worst competitions I've been in. It was just about battling through. When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable."
Medical staff applied a heat pack to thaw the affected area, but the warming process intensified the pain. Despite the ordeal, Lindholm showed resilience, securing gold in the 15km freestyle skiing championship in Tampere less than a year later and finishing second in the Finlandia Ski Marathon in early 2025. He also humorously announced a sponsorship with grooming company Dick Johnson.
However, a new injury derailed his hopes for Milano Cortina 2026. In May, while training with a friend, Lindholm suffered a stress fracture in his sacrum, the triangular bone at the base of the spine between the hipbones. He shared the news on Instagram: "Here we go. We ran a few races with Miro and my back hurt. The end result is a stress fracture in my sacrum and a bit of a hiatus for a while," accompanied by photos of himself on crutches and in a sauna.
The injury has sidelined him, leading to his omission from Finland's 103-athlete delegation to the Games, scheduled from February 6 to 22 in Italy. The men's race is set for February 21 at the Tesero Cross-country Skiing Stadium in Lago. Notably, reigning champion Alexander Bolshunov will also miss the event; his appeal to compete as an Individual Neutral Athlete was denied by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following Russia's ban due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Lindholm's absence highlights the physical toll of cross-country skiing, a sport known for burning over 1,000 calories per hour in extreme conditions. Similar incidents, like Sweden's Calle Halfvarsson freezing his genitals in Ruka and worrying about fertility, underscore the risks athletes face.
