OBERHOFEN, Switzerland (AP) — The scandal in ski jumping of Norway’s men wearing manipulated suits was resolved when three team officials were banned for 18 months on Thursday.
The case tarnished Norway’s hosting of the Nordic ski world championships last March and the country’s wider reputation for fair play.
Head coach Magnus Brevik, assistant coach Thomas Lobben and staff member Adrian Livelten were suspended for the period requested by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) which announced the verdicts.
Two athletes implicated in the case — Olympic gold medalists Johann André Forfang and Marius Lindvik — accepted three-month bans in August and have returned to World Cup competitions ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Games that opens next month.
An independent panel which judged the team officials said it “agrees with, and endorses, the appropriateness of the sanctions sought by the FIS.”
“The panel’s starting point is that cheating of any kind is inherently antithetical to sport and its values,” wrote the three judges, who were led by sports law pioneer Michael Beloff.
The manipulation and restitching of suits was captured on secretly filmed footage and published by media during the world championships in Trondheim.
Athletes were helped to fly further by increasing the size of suits that are preapproved and microchipped by FIS. The manipulation could be confirmed only by tearing apart the seams of the crotch area on the Norwegian team suits.
Lindvik and Forfang were disqualified from the men’s large hill event in Trondheim after they placed second and fourth, respectively.
Lindvik retained his normal hill title won days earlier and both kept their bronze medals from the team event.
In Trondheim, Brevik and Livelten quickly acknowledged their guilt and insisted the cheating took place only before the large hill event.
The bans were backdated to the time of the world championships and will expire in September.
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