Shortly before the ski jumping season starts, the suit scandal surrounding the Norwegians is omnipresent again. The two perpetrators, Johann André Forfang and Marius Lindvik, continue to protest their innocence.
“We didn’t know,” said Forfang in an interview with “NRK”. Lindvik emphasized: “I knew nothing about what was being done to my suits.”
The FIS Ethics Committee had agreed on a settlement with the two Norwegian athletes. Both were banned for three months and had to pay a fine.
At the start of the World Cup season on November 21st in Lillehammer, Forfang and Lindvik will return to international competition.
The top jumpers competed at the World Championships in Trondheim with manipulated suits. Both repeatedly claimed that they had no knowledge of it. Competitors don’t think this is plausible.
Lindvik doesn’t want to be influenced by this. “There are probably some who will never completely get over this. But I can’t think about it, I have to go into the season with my head held high and give it my all,” said the 27-year-old and announced: “I will compete full of confidence. You can imagine what people think. I will do my best and show them.”
In the interview, Forfang looked back on the past six months. “I was walking around wondering, ‘Why am I not freaking out? The stress I’ve felt every day for the last six months, all the different things in life that are weighing on me,'” he said.
“We have taken on this responsibility”
Despite their protestations of innocence, the two of them accepted partial guilt and thereby reached an agreement with the FIS.
“It felt right. I think there was no other way but to take her share of the blame. That’s how it had to be,” Forfang said.
Lindvik emphasized: “According to the regulations, the objective responsibility ultimately lies with the athlete, and we have taken on this responsibility.”