Organizer apologizes for embarrassing mishap

Just in time for Christmas, the organizers of the Four Hills Tournament announced the introduction of a tournament for women. Just a few hours later, they backtracked and deleted their announcement. The disappointment was correspondingly large. Now the press spokesman for the tour explained how the embarrassing breakdown could have happened in the first place.

The news was actually too good to be true for the ski jumpers. On December 24, the organizers of the Four Hills Tournament announced that the long-awaited women’s Four Hills Tournament will take place in the coming season. Something that jumpers and many associations have been fighting for for what feels like an eternity.

In the end, however, the announcement disappeared from the network again after just a few hours. The athletes were not really surprised by this, but the question arises as to how this extremely embarrassing mishap could have happened in the first place.

The spokesman for the Four Hills Tournament now provided the answer. When asked by “TV2”, he said by email that it was simply human error on the part of the social media department, which published the message on all platforms.

“We apologize for this,” wrote Ingo Jensen: “It was a mistake by our social media team. They scheduled the tweet a few weeks ago. And at the time it wasn’t clear the earliest date [einer Tournee für Frauen] the 2024/25 season will be.”

Ski jumpers as second-class athletes

In the end, the statement did not change anything about the matter and the anger about the renewed postponement.

Many jumpers feel that they have been labeled as second-class athletes by being rebuffed by the association. This is also due to the fact that the association has set up a “replacement tour” during the men’s Four Hills Tournament that is now beginning. It is obvious that this tour will be completely lost in the shadow of the tour.

Norwegian Maren Lundby is one of the athletes who have already taken action. She canceled her participation in the women’s tour in Villach (Austria) and Ljubno (Slovenia). “It’s not a boycott, but you’re welcome to speculate,” Lundby said meaningfully. She prioritizes training in Norway, she added. A clear sign of what she thinks of the association’s replacement plans.

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