Three more Norwegian athletes have been suspended in a broadening scandal involving the alleged manipulation of jump suits to gain an aerodynamic edge. Robin Pederson and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal—both world championships medalists—and Robert Johansson have been provisionally suspended by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). It follows a similar Wednesday action against Olympic gold medalists Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang. Michel Vion, FIS secretary general, said, "I heard (it said) that, 'Yeah, but ski jumping is special. They (are always) on the limit, we can play...' No, there's no play. There's no game here. It's only rules."
An investigation launched by FIS' independent ethics and compliance office is ongoing. Norwegian head coach Magnus Brevig and Adrian Livelten, an equipment manager, confessed to the alterations, which they claim happened on just one occasion. The AP reports FIS collected all jump suits used by Norway following last week's world championships in Trondheim and uncovered no irregularities in the suits used by female or combined teams. But Reuters reports the men's suits "raised additional suspicions of manipulation" and resulted in the suspensions of Pederson, Sundal, and Johansson.
Deutsche Welle reports the scandal began with video footage captured last Friday by an unnamed party in Trondheim that was distributed to the media. It shows the exterior of a hotel room with black fabric covering the windows—except for a slit through which ski jumping suits were allegedly being altered on with a sewing machine as Brevik looked on. A stiffer thread was allegedly inserted into the suits. As for the potential impact of such a minor change, Sören Müller with the Institute for Applied Training Sciences in Leipzig explains, "Two centimeters [0.78 inches] more in the circumference of the suit can result in three to four meters more distance in a ski jump."
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