Norwegian ski jumping, once a beacon of fair play, is at the center of a scandal as team officials and athletes face suspensions over alleged suit manipulations. Head coach Magnus Brevig and equipment manager Adrian Livelten confessed to the cheating, but the team insists two Olympic gold medalists were not involved. Nonetheless, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) provisionally suspended Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang on Wednesday and noted they have been put under formal suspicion in its investigation. The athletes had been due to compete in a World Cup event in Oslo that begins Thursday.
The AP reports a whistleblower secretly filmed team officials manipulating pre-approved and microchipped suits. An FIS official said the changes couldn't be spotted by eye, and that it wasn't until the crotch-area seams were torn apart that officials managed to confirm the alteration. CNN reports the suits "were found to contain a reinforced thread, making them stiffer and therefore more aerodynamic." The AP adds that extra material had been added to give the suit more weight. This lowered the material between athletes' legs during the flight phase and the extra surface area hitting the air helped add to flight time, according to Sandro Pertile, FIS race director for men's ski jumping.
Brevig and Livelten maintain they cheated a single time, ahead of last Saturday's men's large hill world championships; Lindvik initially took second in the event before being disqualified once the allegations emerged, reports Powder. Lindik was disqualified as well. Brevig apologized for the manipulation, saying, "We regret it like dogs, and I'm terribly sorry that this happened. I don't really have anything else to say other than that we got carried away in our bubble." The AP notes the scandal is particularly hard to swallow for Norway, which routinely scores high in Transparency International's anti-corruption index. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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