What did they know?
“Never!” Cheaters now attack their coaches
On Saturday afternoon, Norway's ski association admitted to having used illegally modified suits at the Nordic World Championships. In the evening, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang also spoke out - and they maintain their innocence, claiming they knew nothing!
"We apologize for not having the strength to speak to the media after yesterday's events," they said in a joint statement. "We are both completely devastated. Neither of us would have gotten involved with suits that we knew were rigged. Never!"
In other words: The two of them knew nothing about the association's cheating! "There was a lot of trust in the coaches and they always worked hard to develop competitive equipment. As athletes, we also have a responsibility to ensure that the suit fits, but we didn't have a routine to check the work of the coaches, for example with the seams. We have to learn from this. We now want full transparency about what happened and are looking forward to talking to the FIS investigators," said the athletes.
FIS investigating the case
The FIS had previously announced that an independent ethics and compliance department of the world federation would carry out an investigation. The circumstances surrounding the disqualifications of Lindvik and Forfang as well as the combined athlete Jörgen Graabak, who was excluded from the bronze medal in the team competition on Friday due to an illegal ski jumping binding, will be examined in more detail. The department also wants to investigate the circumstances of how the athletes' material was presented at the FIS controls.
FIS Secretary General Michel Vion emphasized that the investigation process is only just beginning and could take months. The world federation could also check all suits for each individual jump retrospectively due to sewn-in chips, he said. Should further offenses come to light, disqualifications and therefore changes to the medal winners could not be ruled out. "That's a different story. Then there will be further penalties after the investigations. These could also be disqualifications."
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