Norway’s sports director admits that the team cheated at the Nordic Ski World Cup and deliberately manipulated the suits. The press in Scandinavia reacts horrified, the ski jumping scandal ensures that the earthquake in Norwegian sports history is never possible.
It was a memorable moment when Norway’s sports director Jan Erik Aalbu faced the press on Sunday. His confession that the Norwegian team had made changes to the suits to commit a fraud, he rated as “unacceptable”. Aalbu was shocked and apologized to everyone affected, everyone who loves ski jumping.
What is left is pure horror – the long -term World Cup party in Trondheim ended in a huge scandal. “This is a black day for Norwegian ski jumping. It was Aalbu who – completely right – put his hands into the air and revealed, ”summed up the Norwegian expert Johan Remen Evensen at the Dagbladet newspaper.
Marius Lindvik and the Norwegian team were transferred to the fraud
Nordic Ski World Cup: Norway of fraud is convicted
A manipulation video had previously appeared. To see in it: head coach Magnus Brevig and suit manufacturer Adrian LIVE, who was there to take a jump suit apart completely and to sew it up again.
“Two overalls were manipulated by sewing a reinforced thread from the knee to the step. This should improve the flight characteristics of the suits, but went far beyond the regulations, ”explains Dagbladet . The changed material is likely to have led to a competitive advantage.
“This is a giant scandal. An earthquake for Norwegian skiing, Norwegian winter sports and the Norwegian sport, ”writes the Norwegian journalist Mina Finstad Berg in a comment for TV2.
“If someone should believe that the Norwegian sport is immune to fraud and costumes, this illusion is now broken into a thousand parts,” is her devastating judgment. The cheating also “throw a dark shadow on the otherwise successful World Cup in Trondheim – a whole festival was ruined.”
There is a “dark shadow” above the World Cup in Trondheim
The advantage that you got in the title fights is terrible. “This is completely unacceptable and hair -raising. There has never been a harder blow for the integrity and credibility of Norwegian sport, ”the comment continues.
That credibility and trust have been completely destroyed: “It is extremely serious.” Those responsible would have to thank those who contributed to the detection of the fraud. Because: “Frauds have no place in sports.”
How often did the Norwegians cheat?
The question arises how often the Norwegians have cheated? Aalbu claimed that Norway had manipulated the suits for the first time at the big hill competition, never before-not even with Marius Lindvik’s World Cup victory on the normal hill.
Not only the Scandinavian rival Sweden arises as to the extent to which this can be credible. This is how Aftonbladet writes journalist Patrik Brenning: “The logical gap opens up why has to be cheated from one hill to another with a world championship suit?”
Has Norway lost his credibility?
And who should believe the statements of Aalbu now? Because, according to his own statement, the sports director had been completely unsuspecting until Sunday morning.
“Neither Aalbu nor the public may know whether this claim is true or not, but it is impossible to believe anything that comes from exposed fraudsters,” says Leif Welhaven in a comment at the Norwegian newspaper Verden Gang: “Is it a few people who have decided on their own? Or is it a culture that has thrown the values of sport over the pile? “
Welhaven also wonders whether the athletes were really unsuspecting: “When a fraud took place without the athletes knew anything about it, this is a great betrayal of their own management.” But the reverse scenario is worse: “In this case, there is more and more reason to question everything and take a closer look to find out how big the ski jumping scandal really is.”
A uncovered scandal at an initially large World Cup party, which is ended in a huge scandal for Aftonbladet . The criticism of the greatest competitor was accordingly clearly: “Norwegian ski jumping has lost its credibility and all of Norway its World Cup festival.”
Medal mirror: Norway dominates the rest of the world
From a cross -sport point of view, Norway would not have had the manipulated suits.
With 32 medals, 13 times gold, the winter sports greater power left the rest of the world miles behind. The aberred large hill medals from Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang do not even flow in.
But instead of the big performances such as that of cross-country icon Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who was the first athlete to get six out of six possible gold medals, the focus is now on the manipulation scandal. Accordingly, other Norwegian athletes are likely to be.
From a German perspective, spicy: If Lindvik had actually been cheated in the first competition, the gold medal would have to be revoked. The runner-up in this competition was DSV Adler Andreas Wellinger, who would have been cheated for gold.
Not the first was at the Nordic Ski World Cup
But it is not the first time that a Nordic Ski World Cup ended in a scandal – and the host is the focus almost every time.
Among other things, the World Cup in Lahti (2001) is remembered when the cross-country team of host Finland was convicted afterwards of the systematic doping. In 2019, the World Cup in Seefeld was a shadow over the Austrian cross -country elite – also because of doping.
Now the scandal in ski jumping – a sport that repeatedly caused controversy due to the rules, wind factors and the suits in the past. But no controversy comes to this scandal, in which so far has probably only been scratched on the surface.
At least now everyone is aware that rules of rule are needed to put a stop to the fraud options. Ski jumping icon Sven Hannawald already proposed in the ARD that “monitoring the suits will be handed over to a machine as soon as possible”.
The world association will now have to think about what the best solution is. One thing is clear: Norway has added to ski jumping an image damage that will deal with the sport even longer.