SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A big scandal in the world of sports - not about doping or deflated footballs. The Norwegian ski jumping team has been accused of illegally altering their uniforms. The scandal emerged out at the Nordic world championships, which ended last weekend. Norway has often dominated the event, but a coach and equipment manager confessed that they manipulated the suits after a video was leaked to a journalist. Graham Dunbar reports on sports for The Associated Press and joins us now from Geneva, Switzerland. Thanks so much for being with us.
GRAHAM DUNBAR: It's my pleasure.
SIMON: What did they do to the suits?
DUNBAR: They cut open the seams and inserted extra material that added some weight to the crotch area to create a kind of bigger surface area to sort of ride the air, which can add extra feet to the sort of flight time in a sport where flying an extra 20" can make all the difference.
SIMON: How did they find out about this?
DUNBAR: They found out because of the whistleblower. If you see the footage, which was circulated to some journalists who are covering rival teams, it seemed to be filmed by someone with a handheld camera - was it a phone, probably? - literally behind the curtain of an equipment room or a storage room where the two Norway team officials were - well, one of them was only hunched over a sewing machine making the alterations.
SIMON: The athletes involved say they didn't know the suits were altered. Is that plausible?
DUNBAR: Well, I think it's fair to say there's some skepticism about that explanation. The video circulated around the weekend of the competition. It was only after the competition that the organizing officials from the world governing body were able to get in and cut into the suits and find this. So clearly, the evidence was proven very early on. And the explanation from the Norway team at first was, yes, a head coach and the equipment manager had done this, but they said that the athletes were not aware. As it's developed during the week, first, two athletes were provisionally suspended during the investigation. Three more were suspended on Thursday. And that's sort of the direction of the investigation being done is to find out - how much did the athletes know?
SIMON: Now, I gather Norway is to ski jumping what, let's say, pasta is to Italy.
DUNBAR: Norway is very good at the Nordic sports of cross-country skiing, especially, but also ski jumping. There are a few competitive, strong countries in the sport, most in Central Europe and Northern Europe, but Japan, the United States is creating more of a program. But yes, Norway would always be expected to win medals at the Winter Olympics and at world championships.
SIMON: What happens for the rest of the season to the sport?
DUNBAR: Well, the Norwegian men's team has been cleaned out for the last three weekends of the season. I mean, the circuit is actually still in Norway this weekend. All the details are being poured over. But it'll move on to two more weekends, then it'll be the end of the winter season. So it may take weeks for the investigation to finish and to be judged. Should there be appeals, that would take perhaps a few months more, but it's something that really needs to be dealt with before the start of the Olympic seasons of next October, November.
SIMON: Graham Dunbar covers sports for The Associated Press out of Geneva, Switzerland. Thanks so much for being with us, sir.
DUNBAR: My pleasure, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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