In the affair around manipulated suits in ski jumping, the Norwegian sports director admitted to deliberately cheating.
Norway’s ski jumping team deliberately cheated at the World Cup in Trondheim. Sports director Jan Erik Aalbu confessed to this on Sunday (09.03.2025) at a press conference in the team hotel. The manipulation of the suits was carried out without consultation with the jumpers. It was the two suits of Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang. Aalbu himself had no knowledge of the practices, he explained.
Aalbu did not want to name the names of those responsible. Head coach Magnus Brevig, who was shown in an anonymous video that is said to have filmed manipulation, was missing from the press conference.
On the moving images you can see how the Norwegian team processes the suits in an inadmissible way in the presence of Brevig. The Norwegians put on a non -permitted seam that should provide more stability. The additional stability helps the jumpers to fly in the air.
“We all disappointed”
“We made changes to the suits in the knowledge that they are not legal. As I see it, we cheated. We tried to trick the system. This is unacceptable”said Aalbu: “We all disappointed who love ski jumping. I would like to apologize to the other nations, the World Cup organizers and fans. I am shocked myself about these revelations.”
Aalbu had excluded a conscious campaign on Saturday. “It was not a manipulation of the suit. This is not a fraud, that’s not a doping”he had explained. Now he rowed back. On the video, which was circulating in jumping circles and in the media, showed how, in the presence of Brevig, the World Cup suits were probably tailored on Saturday night.
Thereupon three nations had protest against the start of the Norwegians in jumping from the Großchanze. After jumping from the Großchanze, three Norwegians had been disqualified, including the second -placed Marius Lindvik.
The otherwise closed ski jumping family dismantled itself on a memorable World Cup Saturday. Or: All nations attacked the Norwegians. “For me it is a fool. It is clear manipulation and clear sports fraud, similar to doping “Polen’s head coach Thomas Thurnbichler said. He is no longer talking to his coaching colleague Brevig, added Thurnbichler.
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