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≡ FIS CRACKS DOWN ≡
“For every competition until the end of the season, all suits will be kept by FIS and available to be picked up by each athlete approximately 30 minutes before their training or competition. All athletes must bring their suits back to the FIS equipment controller within 30 minutes after their jump.”
That’s from a Wednesday directive issued by the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) that impacts both Ski Jumping and the Nordic Combined for the remainder of the season:
Nordic Combined:
● 15-16 March: Oslo (NOR) ~ men and women
● 21-22 March: Lahti (FIN) ~ men
Ski Jumping:
● 13 March: Oslo (NOR) ~ men and women
● 15-16 March: Vikersund (NOR) ~ men and women
● 20-22 March: Lahti (FIN) ~ men and women
● 27-30 March: Planica (SLO) ~ men only
A statement from the FIS Race Directors Sandro Pertile (ITA/Ski Jumping) and Lasse Ottesen (NOR/Nordic Combined) underscored their concerns:
“Given how serious the case in Trondheim was, we felt the need to immediately adjust the suit control policy for the remainder of the season. This will ensure that equipment control is more efficient since our controllers will have much more time to conduct tests.
“We hope that these measures will also act as a testament to how FIS takes this matter as seriously as it can possibly be taken. We expect full support from the teams so we can ensure what matters the most: fair competition until the end of the season.”
Coaches were told on Wednesday:
“Each athlete will be allowed to use one suit until the end of the season. This suit may be selected among any of those to which an identification microchip has already been implanted during the season. A second suit can be made available as a backup in case of irreparable damage.”
Suits were already identified individually prior to the season, using the microchip, so they could be checked for conformity with the rules on materials. A FIS equipment check was how the altered were caught for the men’s Large Hill competition at the World Nordic Skiing World Championships in Trondheim (NOR) last weekend.
And the repercussions of that event are not over. On Thursday, FIS suspended three more Norwegian jumping stars (for a total of eight athletes and staff so far):
“FIS has notified another three athletes of Norway’s Men’s Ski Jumping team that they are under investigation by the FIS Ethics and Compliance Office for their alleged involvement in illegal equipment manipulation.
“Robin Pedersen, Kristoffer Sundal, and Robert Johansson, members of the Norwegian team that competed at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim 2025, are provisionally suspended, with immediate effect, from participating in FIS events and events organized by a National Ski Association.”
Pedersen and Sundal were both members of the Norwegian bronze-medal team in the men’s Team Large Hill event in Trondheim. Johansson, famous for his mammoth handlebar moustache from the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, finished 19th in the Trondheim men’s Large Hill event this year and owns three Olympic and three Worlds medals from 2018-19-21 championship events.
The FIS announcement also noted more suit examinations:
“Upon request from the external investigators of the FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office, on Tuesday, 11 March, FIS seized all the jumping suits used by Norwegian teams in Trondheim 2025 – in both Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined, in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
“These seized suits were submitted to an inspection, which found no irregularities in the equipment used by the Women’s Ski Jumping team and by both the Men’s and Women’s Nordic Combined teams. However, the suits used by the Men’s Ski Jumping team raised additional suspicions of manipulation, which have resulted in the provisional suspensions announced today.”
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