tears after disqualification
Althaus: “World Federation destroys ski jumping”
2/7/2022, 6:01 p.m
Norway, Japan, Austria and Germany – four out of ten teams in the mixed ski jumping competition are disqualified. In all cases, women are disqualified because their suits do not conform to the rules. Katharina Althaus makes serious accusations against the world association.
Katharina Althaus cried bitter tears of despair, then Germany’s Olympic heroine vented her boundless anger. “The world association destroyed women’s ski jumping today. With such an action they are destroying the sport,” said the individual second after a scandalous mixed competition in which she herself was disqualified. “Today was puppet theater,” explained the men’s national coach Stefan Horngacher.
World champion Germany had previously been deprived of the medal at the long-awaited Olympic premiere of the mixed team competition in a hill farce with disqualifications against five athletes from four nations. Emotions were correspondingly high. “Something’s fishy there. I think it’s a bottomless impudence,” Karl Geiger rumbled.
The DSV quartet with Althaus, Geiger, Constantin Schmid and Selina Freitag was on course for a medal when Althaus was disqualified because of a non-compliant suit during the inspection by the world association FIS. Almost unbelievable: The top nations Norway, Japan and Austria met the same fate – gold went to practically unrivaled Slovenians.
“The four largest nations do not want to manipulate”
She had “been checked so many times in eleven years of ski jumping, and I wasn’t disqualified once. I know my suit fit,” Althaus said indignantly. “We were so happy that we have a second competition here at the Olympics. The FIS destroyed that with this campaign.” Austria’s sporting director Mario Stecher saw an “immense damage to the image of ski jumping.” Horngacher especially attacked the FIS. “At the Olympics, they suddenly start testing differently or more,” said the surprised coach.
In addition to the fit – the suits must not be too wide, as this would offer advantages in flight – the tests also deal with the material, which must be neither too thick nor too thin and must not exceed a certain air permeability. On the one hand, this is intended to prevent a technical arms race and, on the other hand, to ensure equal opportunities.
Althaus burst into tears after the shocking news and had to be comforted by her colleagues for a long time. “The Katha was totally dissolved,” said DSV official Horst Hüttel and also found clear words: “The four largest nations are not all stupid and want to manipulate. I don’t think that the athletes are so stupid to mess up here at the Olympics to drive.” Althaus had received the green light from the pre-jump check. “We’re all pissed off. Katha says she’s been checked out for longer than ever. She says: until something is found,” explained Hüttel.
The end result was correspondingly curious: Gold for top favorite Slovenia was still to be expected. On the other hand, silver for the Russian team and especially bronze for Canada were completely bizarre. The Polish women controller Aga Baczkowska and Mika Jukkara, who is responsible for the men and who replaced Sepp Gratzer at the beginning of the season, moved into focus. “The new inspector has tightened the controls extremely. The FIS procedure hasn’t gotten any better, it’s gotten worse,” said Horngacher.