Poland’s Pawel Wasek disqualified from the Four Hills Tournament

“We are just as surprised”

Next ski jumper disqualified – mystery on tour

There were residues of fluorine wax on Paweł Wąsek’s skis. An unpleasant surprise for the Polish team – and consequences.

At the Four Hills Tournament, a ski jumper was disqualified for the first time because of banned fluorine wax. The Pole Paweł Wąsek initially took 36th place in the qualification for the Bergisel jumping in Innsbruck on Saturday and was scheduled to compete against the Kazakh Ilja Misernych on Sunday. A little later, however, he was disqualified because residues of wax containing fluoride were discovered on his skis.

The Polish team reacts to the incident with incomprehension. “We are equally surprised because we definitely do not have such waxes and have not for a very long time,” head coach Maciej Maciusiak told Polish media. The residues found were no small matter: “These are not trace amounts. The results suggest that the skis were waxed with fluorine,” Maciusiak continued.

Fluorine has been banned in competitions run by the International Ski Federation FIS for more than two years for environmental and health reasons, but until now it had been used more in cross-country skiing or alpine skiing. The affected athlete Wąsek also protested his innocence.

There were several disqualifications during the current tour. The most prominent case is Timi Zajc, whose suit did not meet the regulations in both Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As a result, the Slovenian, who initially took second place in Oberstdorf, was banned for the rest of the tour.

Meanwhile, the out-of-form world champion Marius Lindvik has pulled out of the Four Hills Tournament early. The Norwegian, one of the main protagonists of the World Cup scandal in March, missed the Bergisel jump on Saturday as 51st in qualifying. Benjamin Östvold will be joining the team in Bischofshofen to replace him.

For Lindvik, the series of unfortunate tours continues: in 2019/20 and 2021/22 he narrowly missed out on overall victory when he finished second, and in 2020/21 he dropped out as one of the favorites because of a toothache after the start in Oberstdorf.

There was a scandal surrounding Lindvik at the home World Cup in Trondheim in the spring. The Norwegian initially won gold on the normal hill ahead of Andreas Wellinger. A week later, he and other teammates were disqualified from the large hill after the decision because a secretly recorded video had proven that his suit had been tampered with. To this day, Lindvik maintains that he did not know about the manipulations.