Resignation of the whole team?
After scandal: Norwegian ski jumper breaks off season
15.03.2025 – 9:53 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
He was the only ski jumper in the Norwegian team that was not suspended after the suit scandal. Now Benjamin Østvold takes a break.
After difficult weeks in Norwegian ski jumping, Benjamin Østvold takes consequences. The 24-year-old ends his season prematurely-for mental reasons. The athlete explained to the Norwegian broadcaster “NRK”: “At the moment I am not almost able to be fully focused.” He was part of the Norwegian team at the SkiSprung World Cup in Trondheim, but was not used in any of the competitions.
The 24-year-old emphasized that the situation around the Norwegian ski jump exhausted him and that he felt mentally exhausted after the events of the past few weeks. “I’m so tired and it is no fun to stand on the ski jump,” he said.
Norway’s sports director Jan-Erik Aalbu described the effects of the current burden on the entire team at “TV2”: “Now Benjamin Østvold has thrown the towel, he no longer wants to jump this year. He is mentally exhausted. That says a lot about the stress they have experienced.”
The background to the situation is the scandal for unauthorized manipulations on the diving suits of the Norwegian team during the World Cup. As a result, the ski jumper Johann André Forfang, Marius Lindvik, Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal, Robert Johansson and Robin Pedersen as well as three supervisors from the World Association FIS were blocked for the rest of the season.
Østvold itself is the only jumper from the Norwegian World Cup team that is not affected by the lock, but is still faced with several allegations. “I have the feeling that I was severely accused of being part of it because I was at the World Cup,” said Østvold at “NRK”. “It is a chaos and the media contribute to it. I am now extremely exhausted,” he added on Friday.
The other plans of the Norwegian team are now also under question. Sports director Aalbu said that the association was considering withdrawing the entire men’s team for the rest of the season. “You cannot imagine what the boys have been through lately. We will make an overall assessment in the next few days.”
He cited the reason that he did not want to expose the remaining jumper to the great media pressure. “I don’t want to expect that to you, because the questions will come,” said Aalbu. The World Cup season in ski jumping ends in the coming weeks with competitions in Lahti (Finland) and Planica (Slovenia). “We will think carefully about what the best for the athletes is. But the ladies will not be there in Lahti.”