The International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s (FIS) ethics committee has suspended two Norwegian ski jumping coaches and the team’s suit technician for 18 months for manipulating suits during the sport’s world championships last year.
In a ruling Thursday following 11 months of investigation and litigation in a case that has become a cause for national shame in Norway and forced FIS to revamp its enforcement protocols, the committee decided to back the federation’s request for a punishment far harsher than previous penalties.
“The Panel has considered but rejected the option of imposing a low or even minimal sanction on the Respondents,” the ruling said. “In (the Panel’s) view now is indeed the appropriate time to put down a clear marker to what is not acceptable in (ski jumping).”
At the 2025 Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, last March, the host nation won six ski jumping medals, three gold and three bronze, its best-ever performance at the event. The night before the final day of the championships, Magnus Brevig, the head coach of the Norwegian team, and Adrian Livelten, its suit technician, were caught on video inserting illegal non-elastic stitching into the crotch area of the suits of two star jumpers, including the reigning Olympic champion, Marius Lindvik, after the suits had already passed inspection.
The stitches essentially served to make the crotch area of the suits larger, smoother and more aerodynamic, allowing the jumpers to fly farther than the competition. Thomas Lobben, the team’s assistant head coach at the time, was not on the video, but later confessed to being a part of the conspiracy, which also involved manipulating the suit of Johann André Forfang, who was part of the Norwegian mixed team that won gold at the world championships.
Marius Lindvik is the reigning Olympic champion in the large hill competition. He’s expected to defend the title next month in Italy. (Wojtek Radwanski / AFP via Getty Images)
Lindvik, 27, and Forfang, 30, claimed ignorance. The coaches backed those claims, and the athletes received suspensions of just three months, which they were able to serve during the summer. They are expected to compete in the Olympics next month. Forfang won a team gold and individual silver at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The saga has been especially painful for Norway, a country with a reputation for rule-following and winter sports dominance, winning more Winter Olympic medals than any other nation. The revelations struck at the heart of the country’s national identity.
The ruling represented a significant win for FIS. The coaches argued for months that their behavior was in keeping with a sport where pushing up to the very edge of the rules, and sometimes stepping over the lines, is a part of the culture. Previous violations in the sport had been met with such light penalties, they argued, that they were not aware that heavy sanctions were even possible.
That, the ruling said, “comes perilously close to saying, in the Panel’s view unattractively, that the Respondents were prepared to take the risk to achieve the best result for the Norwegian team because, even if detected, the sanction would be minimal.”
In this case, the video revealed to the world just how brazen cheating in the sport can be and called into question the legitimacy of elite competition. Lawyers for the coaches argued that the presence of a salacious video should not result in a harsher penalty than the warnings and disqualifications that FIS has issued for equipment violations in the past.
FIS and its ethics committee disagreed.
“In the Panel’s view,” the ruling read, “it is the fact of the violations, the admission of which was compelled by the video evidence, that justifies the imposition of sanctions.”
Thursday’s ruling also ordered each of the coaches to pay 5,000 Swiss francs (about $6,200 U.S.) toward the cost of the proceedings. Brevig, Livelten and Lobben have 21 days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The suspensions of the coaches, who were fired in the aftermath of the scandal, are backdated to last March, which would allow them to resume their careers next season if they can secure employment.
The athletes involved in the case have struggled so far this season on the World Cup circuit. Forgang is currently 16th; Lindvik is 18th. The Olympic ski jumping competition begins Feb. 7 in Predazzo, Italy.
