Manipulated suits and more? Ski jumping is shaken by a fraud scandal. Jens Weißflog is also horrified – and chooses clear words.
“It takes drastic punishments,” said the 60-year-old ski jumping legend “Bild”. “In principle, every rule violation is criminal. The material battle has always been there, there are basically two competitions in ski jumping. On and off the ski jump. It has always been tried to go to the limit of the feasible. But that now has a different dimension and is a shame.”
Weißflog, who won three Olympic gold medals and three World Cup titles in his active career, became even clearer: “For me, this is doping. Only with a different needle.”
There is “only one solution”, according to the ski jump legend: “Drastic punishments are needed. As with doping. With a disqualification for jumping, it is not enough. It takes a deterrent effect for everyone. If you are violated, you have to get there for three or four jumps. Because the general suspicion is now.
At the Nordic Ski World Cup in Trondheim, the Norwegian team had manipulated the suits of its athletes. After that, five ski jumper and several members of the staff were temporarily blocked.
Ski jumping: Weißflog criticism at the FIS
“I think it had to escalate. It came up at the right time,” said Weißflog. “The rule book of the FIS has become thicker from year to year, those responsible have usually only reacted and did not act. If you want to restore credibility in sport, you need to punish now.”
There is no surprise alarm mood at the Ski World Association, far-reaching rules of control are in the pipeline. “We do our best to do the sport better and fairer. An idea was a unit suit for all athletes that you wear all the season and that comes from us,” said FIS General Secretary Michel Vion.
However, the introduction could still “take two or four years”.