Chaos start at the Ski jumpers’ summer grand prix: The new reversals introduced after the Norwegian manipulation scandal have led to several disqualifications at the start of the summer season.
During the qualification for the opening jumping jumping in the French Cullandel, the Norwegian Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal was excluded from the competition on Saturday. According to the Norwegian news agency NTB and the Dagbladet newspaper, this was due to a great suit.
Sundal had already been one of the Norwegians who were suspended at the Nordic Ski World Cup in Trondheim after the manipulation on the Norwegian suits had been blown up. Sundal’s team -mate Benjamin Østvold and several Finnish ski jumper in Couplevel had not received a starter permit in advance, including that because of excessive suits.
In a message, Østvold assured that in no way tried to test the boundaries. His suit was just a little too big on the upper arms.
Attachment manipulation With the world champions
Videos had revealed at the World Cup in March how the Norwegian team illegally worked on the competition suits in the presence of the then head coach Magnus Brevig. The World Cup host equipped the suits with a volume banned according to the regulations, which should ensure more stability after the jump. The world champions Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang were suspended after becoming known, later also Sundal and two other Norwegians.
Lindvik and Forfang denied to have known about the practices. They mastered the qualifications in Couplevel, where they jumped again for the first time since the World Cup. In the competition, some German top jumpers such as Andreas Wellinger were missing, and Philipp Raimund took second place as the best German for qualification.
New regulations
The World Association FIS has introduced several changes to the rules in response to fraud. An athlete that is disqualified due to an equipment shock now receives a yellow card. Another violation leads to a red card and a lock for the following competition. In addition, the FIS relies on modernized measurements in control and new requirements for the suits. They should offer less space for manipulations.
It remains unclear what consequences the World Cup scandal will have for the Norwegians. A judgment of the ethics committee used by the FIS should exist in the coming days, as the Austrian news agency APA reported.
Judgment already on Monday? When asked when this judgment would come, Forfang said in Courzevel to Dagbladet: “I can’t comment on that.” The Süddeutsche Zeitung recently reported to the FIS that the judgment was added to those affected on Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, the World Association plans to make a statement.