"Weight competition"
Women too thin? Olympic champion sounds the alarm!
Are female ski jumpers too thin? Olympic champion Maren Lundby, who ended her career in 2023, doesn't mince her words and is now sounding the alarm.
"It may sound drastic, but ski jumping is actually so sick at the moment that half of the field should be disqualified," wrote Maren Lundby in a commentary for the online edition of the NRK channel in the run-up to the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim (February 26 to March 9).
The Norwegian calls for rule changes. The big problem? The calculation of the BMI (body mass index), which reflects the ratio of weight to height. A BMI lower limit of 2 applies in the Women's World Cup, but there are "loopholes in the regulations", said Lundby.
She explained: "The height of the ski jumpers is measured while they are standing with their feet 30 centimeters apart, which means that they have an artificially low height. This means that the jumpers are registered with a higher BMI than they actually have, and that the actual BMI value is well below 21 - the lowest value allowed by the regulations."
The top female athletes "trade their kilos for shorter skis", warned Lundby: "If they have a BMI of over 21, they don't receive any benefits according to the regulations. Every single kilogram over the BMI limit inhibits their flying performance. It is therefore only natural that the athletes aim for the lowest possible weight." It's more "like a weight competition".
"Weight requirement impairs the health of the athletes"
The 30-year-old, who herself ended her career in 2023 due to weight problems and the consequences of radical diets, believes the FIS is responsible. It is "good at ensuring the safety of athletes in a risky sport", emphasized Lundby: "This must also apply to the weight rule, because we see examples of how this weight requirement affects the physical and mental health of athletes." The BMI limit must be raised "to a level that is healthy", Lundby demanded. Female ski jumpers who are below this limit should be banned - "and not allowed to jump on shorter skis".
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