3 Members of Norwegian Ski Jumping Team Suspended for Enlarging Crotch Area on Uniforms: 'Brazen Attempt to Bend the Rules'

NEED TO KNOW

• Three officials for the Norwegian ski jumping team have been suspended for manipulating the suits of their athletes, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation announced
• One ski jumping coach and the team’s suit technician were seen on video inserting illegal non-elastic stitching into the crotch areas of suits, while the team's assistant head coach also confessed to participating in the plot
• Olympians Johann André Forfang and Marius Lindvik, who claimed not to know about the manipulations to their suits, received three-month suspensions in August

Three officials from the Norwegian men's ski jumping team have been suspended ahead of the Winter Olympics for a bizarre reason.

The scandal started at the 2025 Nordic World Ski Championships in Norway last March when head coach Magnus Brevig and suit technician Adrian Livelten were caught on video tampering with their athletes' suits.

According to The Athletic, the team members were found to be inserting illegal non-elastic stitching into the crotch areas of the suits of two jumpers — Olympic gold medalists Johann André Forfang and Marius Lindvik — after the garments had already passed inspection.

Assistant head coach Thomas Lobben was also suspended after he confessed to participating in the plot despite not being seen on the video, The Associated Press reported.

Following an 11-month investigation into the incident, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) announced 18-month suspensions for Brevig and Livelten on Jan. 15, The Athletic reported.

Bruno Sassi, spokesman for FIS, said, “There have been disqualifications in the past, many. It’s part of the sport,” according to a later report from AP. "But there had never been that kind of a brazen attempt to not only bend the rules, but like downright do something...to cheat the system in a way that it is very different from simply having a suit that is a tad too long or a tad too loose.”

According to AP, the enhancement to the suits could only be confirmed by "tearing apart" the garments.

The incident has caused "national shame in Norway" and "forced" the sport's committee to "revamp its enforcement protocols," The Athletic reported.

The ruling said the committee's panel "considered but rejected the option of imposing a low or even minimal sanction" on the team officials, emphasizing that "now is indeed the appropriate time to put down a clear marker to what is not acceptable" in the sport.

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The alterations made to Norway's ski jumping suits attempted to make the crotch area of the garments larger, smoother "and more aerodynamic," which would allow the jumpers to "fly farther than the competition," The Athletic reported.

Forfang, 30, and Lindvik, 27, both denied knowing about the suit manipulation, and agreed to accept three-month suspensions that began in August, which will allow them to compete in the Winter Games in Milan Cortina next month, AP reported.

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