There is a long tradition of teams trying to get an edge in ski jumping, making tweaks to equipment to try to gain a few feet in distance, or even a few inches. But a recent alteration to the crotch area of a team’s ski suits went too far.
Five Norwegian ski jumpers and three officials were suspended by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation this week, accused of cheating after altering the crotches of the team’s ski suits. Some of the officials soon confessed to the scheme.
The officials are accused of engaging in “illegal equipment manipulation” at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, last week. The suspensions will continue while an investigation takes place.
The suspended Norwegian athletes are Marius Lindvik, a gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics in 2022; Johann Andre Forfang, a gold medalist at Pyeongchang in 2018; Robin Pedersen; Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal; and Robert Johansson. Lindvik also won a gold medal at the world championships days before the suspensions.
The federation seized all of the ski jumping suits used by Norway at the event. An inspection of those suits “raised additional suspicions of manipulation” of the suits used by the men’s team, the federation said. No irregularities were found in the women’s team’s suits.
The ski jumping federation said it planned to toughen its “suit control policy” at future events.
The international federation did not immediately make an official available for an interview on Friday.
“What we have done is manipulate or modify the jump suits in such a way that it violates the regulations,” one of the suspended officials, the team coach, Magnus Brevig, told the Norwegian news media. “It was a deliberate act. Therefore, it is cheating. It was a joint decision. I should have stopped it.”
OK, how does this particular “manipulation” to a suit make one fly farther through the air on skis?
Essentially, the team added extra material to the crotch region of the suits, using reinforced thread, creating an extra seam. That added more surface area, providing more lift, which could help the skiers travel farther before landing.
As the Norwegian press described the violation: “The seams in the crotch were not elastic enough.” This created a larger surface for the jumpers to fly on.
“A tighter sail is better than a loose sail,” Brevig said.
Investigating officials said they had to destroy the suits to find the subtle adjustment.
Brevig said that a hidden camera caught him and other officials making the alterations, although it was unclear who had set it up.
Asked why the team had altered the suits despite having solid success earlier in the championships, he said to the Norwegian press: “I’ve asked myself that many times. We regret it like dogs. I’m terribly sorry. We became blind in this World Cup bubble of ours and went way over the line.”
The suspensions sent a shock through ski jumping circles. “The situation is obviously extremely disturbing and disappointing,” Michel Vion, the secretary general of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, said of the scandal.
“Norway is a country that we all know as a leader in human rights, in equality, integration,” the federation’s race director, Sandro Pertile, told The Associated Press. “I cannot believe that there is a system” of cheating.
The Norwegian newspaper VG determined that Norway had the most ski jumping suspensions of any country over the past 10 years, and speculated that this was a sign of the team’s “willingness to be close to the edge” of the rules.
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