The bizarre broccoli juice trend sweeping the Winter Olympics: ‘It’s better than Jagermeister’

In the never-ending pursuit of marginal gains, the Winter Olympics is perhaps the epitome in discovering the limits to human performance.

Milano-Cortina 2026 has seen the bizarre, including ‘penis-gate’ and an anti-doping concern surrounding ski jumpers and the injection of hyaluronic acid.

Technological advances also saw Great Britain have a special skeleton helmet banned, though it failed to deny Matt Weston from a famous golden double.

But as athletes push the boundaries of what is possible, physiologically, diet, nutrition and supplements can prove the difference between gold, silver, bronze and despair.

Enter a new trend in the shape of broccoli juice, with cross-country skiing among the sports especially transfixed by this supplement, which has also proven popular, and even essential, to elite long-distance runners in the last year.

The premise is enough to make fussy eaters retch, but taken as a shot in a highly concentrated, liquid form, broccoli juice could bring a sufficient boost to help athletes fulfil their dreams.

Swedish company Nomio has led the market, with a compound in the vegetable reportedly helping to lower blood lactate levels during intense exercise.

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Olympic and world champions such as cyclist Mads Pederson and runners Cole Hocker and Andres Almgren are already on board, and now winter sports are too.

Managing effort can only go so far; with an athlete’s lactate threshold, the point at which the body switches its energy system from aerobic to anaerobic, critical as lactate begins to build up in the bloodstream faster than it can be removed.

Anecdotally, athletes will describe the burn, with pain visible across their faces, meaning the longer they can avoid this sensation, the better their chances of success.

After eight years of research from scientists at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Science and Stockholm’s renowned Karolinska Institute, the ideal quantity has settled on six pounds of broccoli per liquid shot dose, with only a small dose of lemon and sugar to make the drink just slightly more palatable.

“We sell it because it works, not because it tastes good,” Nomio co-founder Emil Sjölander says, with the taste claimed to be “a combination of wood and Dijon mustard.”

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Just like sodium bicarbonate, with its benefits researched more extensively, beetroot juice and caffeine, broccoli juice has been added to the cocktail of legal supplements for the world’s best endurance athletes, with Nordic skiing, cyclists and runners harnessing it around hard training and races. There is even some evidence to support the anecdotal effect of the supplement.

“There’s bio-plausibility, meaning there’s been enough research where this is now a legitimate hypothesis,” renowned performance coach and author Steve Magness states. “The problem is, there’s only been a handful of studies.”

Pedersen attributes the juice to some of his breakthrough performances: “With Nomio, I feel completely different on the bike. During Gent-Wevelgem, I hit a 90-minute all-time best at 400W. The craziest part is that even when I went all out, I was still able to recover quickly after every climb.”

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While Einar Hedegart, a Norwegian Olympic cross-country skier who won two gold medals this month in the men's 4 × 7.5 kilometre relay and men’s team sprint, also hailed the supplement, though some maintain its impact could be down to a placebo effect.

“The amount of good races I’ve had with Nomio and the amount of good hard sessions, I definitely think it’s working,” Hedegart states, according to WSJ.

While Team Norway colleague and former Olympic champion Emil Iversen, who combined with Hedegart to win gold in the men's 4 × 7.5 kilometre relay, has pinpointed its impact on recovery.

“We are maybe one minute uphill and maybe 10 seconds downhill,” Iversen says. “I think maybe it helps me just recover faster in the small breaks we have.

“It’s better than Jägermeister, for sure.”