Wellinger discussed the scandal surrounding the Norwegian ski jumping team at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim with ski jumping legend Toni Innauer, combined athlete Johannes Lamparter and ÖSV sports director Mario Stecher on the ServusTV program "Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar 7". Innauer was particularly disappointed about the damage to ski jumping's image caused by the scandal: "This sport doesn't deserve this!" 

"There is a strong suspicion that the entire World Championships were manipulated," suspects Stecher. He also disapproves of the way the Norwegians communicated afterwards: "The interview with the Norwegian sports director was very arrogant." Stecher will not be persuaded that the team knew nothing about the dealings. 

"Morally everything was driven into the sand"
"As an experienced fox, I thought it would be too tricky to disqualify them in front of the king in Norway," Innauer recalls the situation on Saturday. But when he found out about the disqualification, he realized that there must be a bigger issue at stake. "In terms of morale, the Norwegians had blown everything out of proportion," said the ski jumping legend, expressing his disappointment. 

Wellinger, for his part, was disappointed by the manipulation. "My claim is to fight with fair means and then in the end the winner should be the one who performs best." On the normal hill, the German took silver behind Marius Lindvik. It is therefore possible that he will subsequently win gold. 

DSV eagle has a suspicion
"I don't know whether I deserved gold. But the whole story has a bad aftertaste. It raises a lot of questions," explains Wellinger. Meanwhile, he doesn't believe that the Norwegians only cheated in the last jumping competition. "After their previous successes, why would they take the risk in the last jump?" the German asks. 

Even if he were to win gold afterwards, the feeling would not be comparable to that of being able to celebrate it on site after the competition. "All the emotions are missing. No anthem, no cheering after the competition - nobody can give me all the things we do this sport for afterwards." 

Meanwhile, the ski jumping scandal surrounding deliberately manipulated suits has led to the first personnel consequences at management level in Norway. Coach Magnus Brevig was suspended the day after the end of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, as was Adrian Livelten, who was also involved. The disqualified jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang denied any involvement, and a first sponsor has backed out.

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