gold scam? Hannawald rages: Althaus’ ski jumping thriller still has an effect

gold scam? Hannawald is raging
Althaus’ ski jumping thriller still has an effect

She is happy with her second Olympic silver medal: Katharina Althaus repeats her placement from 2018 – but she already had her fingers on gold. A tight decision, which is also influenced by the wind. That’s exactly why the former ski jumper Sven Hannawald is very angry.

Ski jumper Katharina Althaus has no grudges about the controversial jury decision in the second round after just missing out on the Olympic victory. “It’s just part of the sport. Sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you’re unlucky. I’m glad that in the end it turned out the way it did,” said the Oberstdorfer one day after her silver flights at the Winter Games in Beijing.

National coach Maximilian Mechler also stressed that he “didn’t feel cheated”. Althaus was in the lead on Saturday after the first round, but she had to complete her second jump in much worse conditions than her competitors. Spicy: Miran Tepes, a compatriot of the later winner Ursa Bogataj from Slovenia, gave the go-ahead by the jury.

“It’s just the way it is in sport, there’s luck and bad luck. Yesterday it just wasn’t good in the last jump. I even had the fear that a medal wouldn’t be possible. In the end I was just happy,” said Mechler . 2.2 points separated Althaus from Gold – about one meter.

“He could have taken his time”

Former ski jumping star Sven Hannawald can’t handle the jury’s approval quite as well. “Tepes forgets that it’s about big decisions. I’m not talking through German glasses now, I’m saying that in general: He lacks sensitivity! You have to protect the best,” Hannawald told the “Bild-Zeitung”. “Ten seconds after Althaus was down, the wind changed again. He could have taken his time.”

Official Tepes, who officially works as the assistant to the race director, is the master of the traffic lights in ski jumping. Before the competition, a wind corridor is determined in which jumps are allowed. In the case of the 25-year-old Althaus, the wind was in this corridor, Tepes switched the traffic light to green. National coach Maximilian Mechler waved the athlete off, Althaus had ten seconds.

The German had one of the worst conditions in the second jump, but was compensated accordingly. This was introduced to compensate for changing conditions within a competition. However, this is not entirely fair.

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