Here's How Olympic Skiers Find Jeans that Fit

Skiers tend to develop powerful butts and thighs in order to get down the slopes as quickly and forcefully as possible. This, however, does make it hard to find a pair of jeans that fit well.

Good thing the New York Times is on it! They interviewed a variety of Olympic skiers and how they cope with this unglamorous downside to their profession. Here are their answers:

Jan Hudec, Canada

“When they rip, I drive them across town and my mother sews them for me,” said Hudek, who, it is still worth noting, is 32 years old. Ripped jeans are apparently a common phenomenon for downhill skiers, much as it is routine for the Incredible Hulk to turn green and burst out of his clothes in fits of anger.

Travis Ganong, USA; Steven Nyman, USA; Marc Oliveras, Andorra; Daniela Merghetti, Italy; Chemmy Alcott, the UK; Edit Miklos, Hungary

“It’s a huge struggle for ski racers, finding a pair of jeans that fit right,” Ganong said. Either they fit around the thighs and hang off the waist, or they fit around the waist but cannot contain the skiers’ massive legs.

“We tend to tear the crotches in our jeans quite a bit,” the American racer Steven Nyman said. The introduction of leggings-style and elasticated jeans has been a godsend. “We have to buy stretchy jeans,” he said.

“I wear sweatpants,” said Oliveras, who is known, he said, as “Le Gros …” before using a local slang word that, he said, translates into “the Big Thighs.”

“I wear leggings,” said Daniela Merighetti, an Italian skier.

“Every year, I buy the same pair of jeans in four different colors,” Alcott said. “You have to find the ones you find, and buy a lot of them.”

“I have one pair of bluejeans and that’s it — I don’t have another,” said Edit Miklos of Hungary, who finished 16th in the women’s super combined. “Normally I have to shorten them because the ones that fit me are too long.”

The rest of the article is full of quotes that amount to: “Yes, I have an enormous butt/derrière/when I do a ton of squats my bf says ‘that’s my girl!’ ” I highly recommend that you read them for yourself.