The suit scandal around the Norwegian athletes threw a shadow on the past season of ski jumpers. Robert Johansson was not allowed to end the season – and now finds clear words like his lawyer.
The lock of five Norwegian ski jumpers in the course of the suit scandal has long been lifted around a month after the manipulations became known. But for Robert Johansson the matter has not yet been over. For the first time since he was suspended, the 35-year-old broke his silence and reveals how he did during his forced break.
“It is best to describe it so that it feels like I would float in nothing. I haven’t even had a stop,” said Johansson of the Norwegian newspaper Gudbrandsdalen .
He did not understand why he was banned, although in contrast to his teammates Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang at the World Cup with a manipulated suit.
“Completely unprecedented, in a negative sense”
When Johansson opened at the World Cup in Oslo after the World Cup, his suit even happened, but a few hours later the suspension followed. “We have the feeling that Robert was suspended because he is Norwegian,” said his lawyer Nicolai Løland Dolva.
Norway’s ski jumper “not treated as individual athletes with their legal interests and individual demands”, the procedure of the FIS “has been” hair -raising “and in particular the handling of Johansson” completely unprecedented, in a negative sense “.
Johansson appealed to the lock, but it was only lifted after the last World Cup jumping in Planica. The Norwegian missed a total of seven jumps, which cost him a lot of money.
“I am currently living from my savings,” said the 2018 team Olympic champion. The situation was not easy for him and his family – especially because he does not know how to proceed.
A stiff band had been sewn into the competition suits of Lindvik and Forfang, which was to improve the flight characteristics of the jumping. However, the consequences not only felt Lindvik and Forfang, but also other athletes.
In addition to Lindvik and Forfang, Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal, Robin Pedersen and Johansson from the World Association FIS were temporarily blocked for the rest of the season.
Racing director Sandro Pertile justified the exclusion that their confiscated suits “something illegal, but something other than the other two suits” had been found. The ski jumping boss did not provide details with reference to the ongoing examination.
Johansson now hopes that FIS will see that her approach was “stupid” because he does not wish anyone what had happened to him. The fact that the association is not actively looking for the exchange is “extremely frustrating” for it. Especially since he is helpful and certain that his confiscated suit was “compliant in every respect”. He “never had anything to do with illegal manipulations,” he assured.