Saturday 8 March. The clock is local time in Trondheim at 17.24. Norwegian Marius Lindvik The top jump will take him to the top in the second round of the Greater World Championship. There is only one jumper left, Slovenia Domen prevc.
In Granåsen’s Mäkimontu race, the next 10,000 head, mostly Norwegian, lives its dream.
Two minutes later, the atmosphere will subsided slightly as Prevc already passes two gold in the race and Lindvik, who won one bronze.
Less than 10 minutes later, the results are new: Lindvik is rejected. The same fate is experienced by fifth placed Johann Andre Forfangwho, like Lindvik, was winning the World Championships in the Mixed team and the World Championship bronze medal.
The International Ski Association FIS unloads Lindvik and Forfang’s jumpsuits and finds a forbidden stiffening tape for the seams that have improved the dressing characteristics of the suit. Before the investigation, FIS has taken over a secretly filmed video, Jossan shows how a Norwegian costume manufacturer Adrian live Edit costumes. Norwegian national team head coach Magnus Brevig Follow the video next to Liveten’s activities.
In post -competition interviews, the Norwegians deny the manipulation of the costumes. The next day, the sound changes in the clock. Norwegian Sports Sports Director Jan-Erik Aalbu to admit a conscious fraud.
How did this situation come up? On Sunday and Monday Sandro Pertile. The interviews created a timeline for the Mäkisandoal, which began the night before the Greater Race at a Trondheim hotel.
Saturday 00.20
The video that caused the scandal is filmed at the official race hotel in Trondheim, Scandic Lerkenndal. There are large hills, such as Norway and Austria.
The video is from a hotel -built service area where each national team has a separate working space.
– The video was filmed on Friday and Saturday night, around 00.20, Christian Scerer tells you over the phone.
Scerer refuses to tell the video maker and nationality.
– We know this person. I believe he gave us the video to us because Austria has dared to speak in recent months of things that are not pleasing to FIS, says Scherer.
Scerer was not in Trondheim watching the World Cup. He says he has received the video on Saturday morning. This is where the exchange of information began with other major competitor countries.
At 12.15
Large ski jumping countries gather for a video and telephone meeting. German sports director Horst Hüttelin According to Austria, Austria is the organizer of the meeting.
In addition to Scherer and German Hütel, the meeting includes official brothers from Slovenia, Gorazd pogorelcnikand from Japan, The rear of the back of Konu. A Polish representative is also present. Norway has not been invited, but FIS’s ski jumping director, Italian Sandro Pertileis at the meeting.
Pertile sees the video for the first time, and the big mountains demanded from him before the race. The countries will discuss whether Norway should be completely shelved at the Greater Hill race starting at 15.45. To find out there, the athletes must first run the qualifying start at 14.15.
At the end of the ten -minute meeting, the German Ski Association, represented by Hüttel, sends an email to FIS, which requires Norwegian costumes to be checked before the start of the race. Hütel refused to give up email to Sports.
At 1:15 pm
The Norwegian ski team arrives at the race site and FIS will make a superficial inspection for the suits. According to the Austrian Ski Association, at least Pertile and the German member of the FIS equipment committee Andreas Bauer.
Inspectors do not detect a clamping rope sewn inside the seams of Norwegian jumping dresses. The Norwegians are allowed to qualify where Lindvik jumps the longest and forfang the fourth best jump.
Austria begins to prepare a protest, which will eventually participate in Slovenia and Poland.
“Needless to say, we were not happy,” Scherer says.
From 3:45 pm to 4:50 pm
The race starts. The three countries mentioned above will make the Norwegians in the first round of the official protest.
At 3:54 pm Polish journalist Jakub Balcerski has taken over the video and publishes it in three parts of their social media account.
The first round ends at 4:32 pm. At 4:50 pm, FIS rejects the protest of Austria, Slovenia and Poland. Lindvik and Forfang, who have the opening round in the top stations, will continue to continue the race. At the same time, the TV channel, which speaks to the World Championships in Austria, will feature the video in its broadcast.
Why did FIS do this?
FIS’s hillside Sandro Pertile Reply to Sports on Monday. On Sunday, FIS has launched an investigation into the Norwegian jumpers who performed in the World Cup. Pertile says that FIS will announce her degree on Wednesday. He defends Saturday’s activities of the umbrella organization.
– We checked the costumes as soon as the Norwegians arrived at the race site, an hour before the qualifying start. We checked the costumes of each four athletes. There was nothing visible in them that would be irregular.
Thus, in addition to Lindvik and Forfang Robert Johansson and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal.
No problems were found and all four went to the race. Sundal was rejected in the first round of an unjustless jumping suit. In his case, the exact cause of the dancing is unknown. Johansson was the only one in the Suurmäki World Championship without a rejection. He finished 19th.
– The costumes had been manipulated so skillfully that finding the breaches required the breakdown of the suits, Pertile says.
Ahonen stumbles
Sports Expert, Costumes sewn for years Janne Ahonen Does not buy Pertile’s claims about the difficulty of finding rules.
“I don’t know exactly how many seams (stiffening tape) have been, but it is said that maybe with such a quarter job, it could have been resolved,” says Ahonen.
According to Ahonen, according to the secret video, the equipment inspector should have been able to detect the extra material with the naked eye.
– Its tape would have been seen without opening the dress seams.
Ahonen considers FIS an explanation as theater.
– In no case does such explanations go through. When I take a ski jumping suit and turn it upwards, all I have to do is capture the seam on each side of the fabric and stretch. You can immediately see if there is something in between.
Pertile is constructively in Ahonen’s criticism.
– Maybe he’s right. Maybe he has more experience than we do. I am still convinced that the process we chose was correct.
– We needed more time. When we checked the Norwegian costumes after the race, they were no longer usable, Pertile says.
Ahonen: Athletes knew
So far, representatives of the Norwegian Ski Association have convinced that Lindvik and Forfang did not know that they were jumping with irregular costumes. According to Ahonen, the claim cannot be true.
– It’s a full skepel. No athlete jumps with a tool that is not known. It would be a security risk to jump with a tool that changes jumping and outcome.
– Even if they did not know about manipulation, they would have felt the stiff when wearing the suit.
Austria: an external investigation
On Sunday, the Norwegian Ski Association organized a press conference where Jan-Erik Aalbu, Ski Sports Director, said he was leading the Norwegian investigation. Aalbu said he was not aware of the manipulation of the costumes after the race and had therefore denied cheating.
Christian Scerer, Executive Director of the Austrian Ski Association, does not consider Aalbu to be an internal investigation into Norway.
– An outsider should do it. This is not acceptable. He did not answer the most important questions at the press conference, such as whether Lindvik jumped in the same suit (winning) in the Normal Hill competition.
– Nor do I understand why the head coach (Magnus Brevig) wasn’t there. The parties should be temporarily banned until the investigation is completed. They were lied to everyone, including FIS officials, says Scherer.
Later on Monday, the Norwegian Ski Association announced that it has set the video on the ban on Brevig and Liveten Liveten.
Instead, Lindvik and Forfang jump this information on this Norwegian World Cup on Thursday in Oslo.