In the first summer grand prix jumping in ski jumping, the focus was also on the implementation of the new material control process. After the first interim balance was positive, especially in relation to strict and uniformity, a US ski jumper now made grievances and failures public.
The ski jumping scene looked with great interest two weeks ago after Couplevel for the first summer Grand Prix weekend, after all, the new material control procedure was implemented for the first time, which was introduced as a result of the manipulation scandal in the Norwegian team at its home World Cup in Trondheim.
Despite or precisely because of the hard time and numerous disqualifications on the weekend, the first interim balance was positive. In particular, the commitment of the Austrian Mathias Hafele as a material expert from the Ski World Association FIS was found to be good. “Mathias knows all the tricks, which is clearly an advantage,” said Andreas Wellinger recently at a press date and received approval from his team -mate Pius Paschke: “He knows exactly what he is doing and has a lot of idea about the matter. The specifications are structured, we have to prepare now.”
So while the controls were noticeably better during the competitions, there are obviously still remembering with the changed preliminary checks. So the American Paige Jones reported in Podcast ‘Good Game with Sarah Spain’ Of the highly unpleasant experiences you and your teammates had to make. Unlike in previous years, they did not go through the preliminary controls under the supervision of a doctor, but from a male doctor-and also without notice.
Women controlled by male doctor without warning
So far, there has always been a doctor in the control room, but not on the competition weekend in Courzevel. “When we came to our check appointment at the ski jump, we were informed of the FIS staff who is responsible for the material control. Maybe five minutes before,” she recalled and described: “The doctor said that he was working as a reproductive endocrinologist, i.e. in a sub-area of gynecology, but we had to undress in front of this male doctor.”
To date, she and her fellow campaigners had to dress in the presence of a doctor in the presence of a doctor in the underwear provided by FIS before going through the 3D body scan, in which the body dimensions are then determined to which the worn competition equipment is finally adapted and compensated for during competition control.
In Collandevel, however, there was “a second inspection, so we took off our underpants and had to stop with spread legs for three to five seconds while the doctor examined us. As soon as he said that everything was fine, we put on our underwear and have the 3D body scan carried out,” said the 22-year-old.
The FIS protocol stipulates that a team member is also present during the control-what her assistant co-trainer Line Year was, a former world-class ski jumper from Norway. “I appreciate very happy that she was there, but other nations have no women in the coaching and supervisory team, such as the Japanese women, who have to go from Asia to Europe,” she said.
So she went behind a cover with the doctor, so that year you could see how the control went but could only see a little. The situation is therefore not to be compared to a doping control where male doctors are not uncommon, “but they are only present there and do not inspect your genitals.”
Jones: “Illusion of freedom of choice”
The Americans were asked by the FIS staff whether they agreed to control the control, but they were then communicated: “Then you cannot take part in the competition.”
Paige Jones called this “an illusion of freedom of choice”, which, strictly speaking, can even be regarded as a violation of the FIS regulations in which it says: “The 3D body protocol gives athletes the opportunity to refuse to the procedure if they feel uncomfortable and to carry out the measurement at a later point in time without punishment or consequences.”
In addition, women in the regulations are expressly granted to “ask for the measurements to be carried out by a female doctor.”
In the malaise after the events and in awareness of her rights, Jones decided to go public through the ‘Good Game’ podcast. “It felt so disgusting and wrong that I went to an adult person I trust, and just had to tell the people out there,” she explained her decision.
She also encouraged that male teammates asked whether they were informed in advance: “You asked us about our chat group whether we knew that. So it is not just we women who felt that it wasn’t right.”
Jones also explained that one was particularly sensitive to US sports because after the abuse scandal around the former doctor of the artists, Larry Nassar, “doctors fundamentally distrust.” Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison in January 2018 for mass sexual abuse of women and girls. The then chairman Rosemarie Aquillina said when the verdict was prison: “You don’t deserve to ever leave the prison again. I just signed her death sentence.”
The ski jumper is also concerned about young athletes: “There are bad people out there and I don’t think that normalizing being nude in sports is a safe thing for her.”
Jones appeals: “Fairness, but not at the expense of women’s dignity”
She therefore appealed to the FIS to include the athletes in decisions about regulations of competition equipment and controls: “Too often, they make decisions for men and then take over 1: 1 for women, which is unfair, especially in suit thematics, because their bodies are different from ours, which in turn change more often.”
Opposite sport.de If she expressed the feeling that “we are always the subsequent thought. Precisely because we were always supervised by women in the past, this would have to be considered this time.” Priority must always be “the fairness, I am completely fully, but that should not happen at the expense of the dignity of the female athletes – and certainly not because you go the supposedly easier way.”
At the request of the ‘Good Game’ Podcast editorial team, FIS expressed that the feelings and the discomfort of the athletes and the constructive feedback are valued and therefore undertook to offer female athletes the opportunity to be examined by a doctor in the future. “
The association will now have to be measured by these words, as well as that the respect for security and well -being is “not negotiable”.