Scandal in the World Cup! The referee prevented the leading competitor Steen Olsen from starting

The downhill skiing world is dealing with a scandal that took place during a World Cup race in Adelboden, Switzerland. Norway’s Steen Olsen had to argue with the referee before the start, who refused to let him on the track.

The referee refused to let Norwegian Steen Olsen on the track

After the first round of the slalom in Adelboden, the Norwegian racer narrowly took the race lead and all spectators were eagerly awaiting a dramatic battle for the win. However, the second round ended in failure for Alexander Steen Olsen when he missed the gate shortly after the start.

It was only a week later that the scandalous information came to light that the starting referee had prevented the twenty-two-year-old Norwegian from starting the second round. The reason? It sounds unbelievable!

The official start list could only accommodate 30 athletes on the first page. However, because two skiers shared the last 30th place with the same time, the name of the race leader was on the second page. However, according to the Swiss newspaper Blick.ch, the starter did not have this and did not even know who was leading after the first run.

The conflict then had to be solved on the spot by FIS race director Markus Waldner, who tried to clear up the misunderstanding over the radio. The Norwegian eventually started the race, but only made it to the sixth gate, where he went off the track.

“I have to be sure that a trained start judge will know which athlete is in the leadafter the first run even without a start list . The man who did a great job at the start last year was the finish judge this year. Next year he will be the head judge again,” commented Director Waldner on the incident.

Did the referee’s failure affect the outcome of the race?

The information about the failure of the organisers was made public by Jean-Francois Jond from Rossignol, the ski brand with which Steen Olsen works. “The starter didn’t want to let Alexander on the track because he thought the race was over,” Jond told Blick.ch. He also claims that the altercation affected Steen Olsen’s mental well-being.

“If one of our servicemen uses a 0.1 millimetre higher pad under the bindings, the athlete will be disqualified by the FIS. But if the FIS starting judge makes a mistake as big as the one in Steen Olsen’s case, nothing will happen. Itjust doesn’t work that way,” added Jond.

The organizers apologized to the young Norwegian for the whole incident. However, this is the second complication for Steen Olsen at the start. In November, he had to wait at the starting gate in Gurgle, Austria, for about 15 minutes because of a protest by climate activists. Then the Norwegian dropped from 5th to 18th place after the second lap.

Source: SkiRacing.com, Blick.ch