Ski jumping Norway suspends coach and one other over cheating at World Ski Championships

OSLO – The Norwegian Ski Federation has suspended two staff, including the team coach, after the governing body admitted that the country’s ski jumping team cheated by manipulating jumpsuits at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim.

The federation said that its ski jumping committee requested the suspension of national team coach Magnus Brevik and equipment manager Adrian Livelten after two Norwegian athletes were disqualified on March 8.

Acting general secretary Ola Keul added that the suspensions were immediate and until further notice.

“The information that has emerged so far about the events... is so serious that it provides grounds for suspending their employment,” the federation said in a statement on March 10.

The admission that the suits had been deliberately altered came after a video emerged on social media of the alternations being made.

Stine Korsen, the chair of the ski jumping committee, said that Norway would also welcome an investigation by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) into the cheating.

“We take this matter very seriously and recognise that equipment has been deliberately manipulated in violation of FIS regulations in order to gain an advantage in the competition,” Korsen added.

Bine Norcic will act as coach while Brevik is suspended, the federation said.

“I have consented to the suspension... I’m terribly sorry for what we did,” local media quoted Brevik as saying after he spoke to reporters on March 10.

“We have manipulated or modified the jumpsuits in a way that violates the regulations – ergo, cheated.”

Competitors Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang were disqualified from the men’s large hill competition at the Nordic World Ski Championships on March 8 after they finished second and fourth respectively.

Livelten, in a statement to local media, also apologised to the athletes.

“I would like to apologise to Marius