It's no secret: Weight has a fundamental influence on performance in ski jumping. The Polish association is now causing a lot of excitement with a BMI announcement. Only jumpers with a BMI of under 21 will be promoted in the future.
This announcement causes a lot of excitement and stirs up the scene: The association in Poland will link the financial support of its ski jumpers to the weight in the future. Support is therefore only available if you have a body mass index (BMI) of under 21.
While many in the winter sports cosmos are shaking their heads, ski jumping legend Adam Malysz, who is now head of the Polish association, is trying to justify this step. "It's a brutal sport, that's why we introduced strict rules for our national team. The weight plays a big role, nothing is forgiven. With a BMI of 24 or 25 you don't have a chance in this discipline," he said to the Polish " Sportowe facty". The former Four Hills Tournament winner also wants to bring the women's team forward with this regulation.
First reactions were not long in coming after the announcement. "Of course the weight is important, but it's not everything. Many potentially talented jumpers are excluded in this way," fears Swedish jumper Astrid Norstedt. The top jumper Maren Lundby from Norway uses more drastic words. "I think it's devastating for the women jumpers. Young women are expected to lose weight in order to get into the national team. They should rather take them into the team and help them. I think it's a step backwards." , she told the newspaper "Verdens Gang".
Lundby made headlines last winter when she decided to sit out the season and Olympics because of weight issues. She dealt aggressively with the problem. She was just "not ready to sacrifice anything to be at the top level in Beijing. I'd rather have a long career."
The German ski jumping legend Martin Schmitt also comments critically on the decision of the Polish board of directors around his former competitor Malysz: "It's a difficult topic. I see it as critical to only use the BMI value for funding in (women's) ski jumping." , said the world champion and Olympic gold medalist to RTL. "It should be about performance, performance should decide, not a fixed BMI value. I think such specifications are worth discussing."
The BMI does not take into account the physical diversity of people at all, said Schmitt. "Performance should be in the foreground and encouraged, everyone should have the right to their physical diversity and not be forced into a BMI scheme. Poland is not satisfied with the performance of women ski jumpers, they are under pressure and try with such means to generate better performance. But that will not be enough. There are also other levers. Other countries such as Slovenia or Germany are doing better.
When asked by RTL/ntv, Ralph Eder, press spokesman for the German Ski Association, emphasizes that the DSV is "funded according to the performance principle". This can be directly derived from the results in the competition and the world rankings. "We work together with the athletes on the discipline-specific requirements and how these can be achieved. There are a large number of parameters that then result in an overall picture," says Eder.
The BMI is the formula: weight in kilos divided by height in meters - the whole squared. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies a BMI of less than 18.5 as underweight, which is a health hazard. Since the 2004/2005 season, the rules of the Ski Jumping World Association FSI have been: The BMI is decisive for how long the skis of the athletes are allowed to be. The higher the BMI, the longer the skis can be. This was originally intended to "punish" underweight. In the meantime, however, the material has developed so much that many people see an advantage in the shorter skis and advocate a new BMI rule. Association leader Malysz will also know about this advantage.
