At the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, broccoli juice is emerging as a new performance aid among cross-country skiers. The drink is reportedly spreading quickly, especially among European teams, because it carries a low risk of triggering doping tests and involves relatively little expense.
On the 12th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that cross-country skiers competing at the Olympics are taking highly concentrated broccoli extract to shave seconds off their times. Cross-country skiing is an outdoor event that traverses snow-covered fields and hills, and athletes must ski distances ranging from 10 kilometers to as far as 50 kilometers.
The drink favored by athletes was developed by the Swedish startup Nomino and is made by concentrating extracts from about 6 pounds (about 2.7 kilograms) of broccoli into a small bottle the size of a tequila shot. A pill form has not been developed, and athletes take it in one go before a race.
A small amount of lemon and sugar is added to the drink to soften broccoli's strong aroma, but the prevailing opinion is that it does not taste good. Emil Sjelander, Nomino's co-founder, described the drink as "a mix of wood and Dijon mustard," and noted, "If it didn't work, it wouldn't sell."
The company says certain compounds in broccoli help improve performance during high-intensity exercise by lowering blood lactate levels. When lactate accumulates, people feel a burning pain in their muscles during respiration, and the drink purportedly lowers this level to delay the point of exhaustion. In particular, cross-country courses repeatedly alternate climbs and descents, and it is said that lactate management and recovery speed determine performance.
In fact, within a year of its commercial launch, the drink reportedly spread widely by word of mouth among athletes in Nordic skiing powerhouses such as Finland, Italy, and France. Recently, cyclists and middle- and long-distance track athletes have also begun seeking it out, and adoption appears faster in Europe than in the United States. Nomino has also formed a collaboration with the Swedish Biathlon Association.
However, debate over the drink's effectiveness does not appear to be fully settled. Steve Magness, a running coach and author on sports performance, called it "a biologically plausible, reasonable hypothesis," but added, "The issue is that there are very few studies to prove it." While sodium bicarbonate added to baking soda has been validated over decades of research for reducing pain during high-intensity exercise, data supporting broccoli's endurance benefits are markedly scarce.
Even so, athletes value broccoli juice for its low risk and potentially large payoff. Einar Hedegård, a member of Norway's national cross-country ski team, said, "Good races and hard training sessions followed after I drank it," adding, "I definitely feel it works."
Emil Iversen, a cross-country skier who won a silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, is also said to have been drinking broccoli juice for six months. Iversen said, "I feel recovery is a bit faster in short rest intervals," and explained, "When I down it before a race, there's some unavoidable discomfort, but it's worth it."