At its meeting at the end of May, the International Ski Jumping Federation (FIS) decided to use a new method of measuring the height of athletes in order to guarantee more fairness. But the jumpers are still skeptical.
The turbulence at the recent Beijing Winter Olympics has had an impact. A suit chaos like in mixed jumping, when numerous top athletes were disqualified because their suits were too big, should not dominate the headlines again in the future.
From the coming ski jumping season, the height of the body lying down and sitting will be determined using laser technology. The dimensions are decisive for the step length of the sprinter suit. “In itself,” judged ski jumper Stefan Kraft in an interview with the “Salzburg news“, the new measurement method is “yes to be supported”. The ÖSV star remains reserved for the time being.
“However, it will depend on whether the athletes are measured by one and the same person or whether four or five different people do it again,” explained the 29-year-old. Because: “Then the probability of cheating is of course greater.”
Kraft about hybrid ski jumping: “I’m not that excited”
The team Olympic champion from Beijing is also not looking forward to the early start of the ski jumping season (November 5th and 6th) in Wisla, Poland, where a hybrid variant is planned. An ice track will be prepared on the ice hill, and you will then land on a mat.
“That doesn’t excite me that much,” Kraft made clear. “You have to know that these traces of ice can only be sufficiently cooled down to an outside temperature of ten, maximum fifteen degrees. If the sun shines at the beginning of November, the start-up slows down too much.” For the Austrian, such jumping is basically like another sport and therefore not suitable for a World Cup that otherwise takes place on snow.
Stefan Kraft praised the planned women’s ski flying event. “I think the time is now.” However, a “stable system is needed, otherwise the danger is simply too great.”
In March 2017 he set a new ski flying world record at Vikersundbakken with 253.5 meters.