“A nonsense before the Lord”
Fraud scandal: Sven Hannawald is angry and demands consequences
10.03.2025 – 9:29 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The scandal around manipulated suits in ski jumping makes Sven Hannawald angry. He demands drastic consequences.
The German ski jumping legend Sven Hannawald worries about his sport after the suit scandal at the World Cup in Trondheim. “In my worst nightmare I would not have thought that it would come.
Anonymously filmed and published videos have been causing great excitement in ski jumping since Saturday. On the moving images you can see how the Norwegian team in the presence of head coach Magnus Brevig processes the competition suits in an inadmissible way. Sports director Jan Erik Aalbu admitted on Sunday at a press conference that the association knowingly cheated on two suits.
The 50-year-old Hannawald had suspected irregularities well before the memorable World Cup Saturday. He had said that the current situation was forced to cheat. In his work as a co-commentator of the ARD, the former four-hill tour tour was repeatedly pointed out to striking suits. Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang were disqualified on Saturday due to suit manipulation. Your further results have existed so far.
Lindvik and Forfang had said they hadn’t known anything of the manipulations. With regard to a post from Forfang, he said in an interview at Sport.de and RTL/NTV that he had to read off in the third set “because I have to go to the toilet because of gagging”.
A jumper in one of the most sensitive sports don’t notice that a suit feels stiff? “Then I don’t know what is going on. The affected people do not learn from it, the active jumpers mock somewhere. They start to show a audacity: ‘I knew nothing about it and the coach did it without my knowledge’. A nonsense before the Lord!
Hannawald also does not believe that only the suits for the competition were manipulated by the big hill. He told Bayerischer Radio: “We cannot prove it, but the suspicion is very obvious that these suits were also used in other competitions and across sports. Men such as women, combination and ski jumping.”
He therefore demands that the World King Association (FIS) sets a sign and canceled all Norwegian medals at the World Cup. Otherwise there is a risk of imitation. Although he was not sure whether this procedure could be enforced, the statement must be set. “If it is not that feasible afterwards, then I wouldn’t care. But you have to set the sign that the FIS is behind the nations that have been cheated and is not on the side that cheated on the side,” said Hannawald.