America’s Annika Belshaw was disqualified from the ski jumping final at the Winter Olympics because her skis were more than 1cm too long.
The 23-year-old from Colorado reached the final of the women’s large hill individual event in Milan Cortina on Sunday.
But Belshaw’s bid for gold was cut short after officials discovered an issue with her equipment. According to the official results, the American’s skis were too long ‘by +1cm.’
In Olympic ski jumping, maximum ski length is based on a competitor’s height and their body mass index, which means that athletes can fall foul of the rules even if they lose weight midway through competition.
In Italy, Belshaw reached the final with a first jump of 98.5 points. That put her in 29th place. She then brought her score up to 190.9 with her final jump, only to be kicked out of the competition.
Earlier in her Winter Olympics debut, Belshaw had finished seventh in the mixed team event and 21st in the normal hill individual competition.
Team USA’s Annika Belshaw was disqualified from the ski jumping final at the Winter Olympics
According to the official results at Milan Cortina, the American’s skis were too long ‘by +1cm’
It is not the first time that bizarre headlines have engulfed ski jumping at these Games.
First, ‘Penis-gate’ emerged amid unsubstantiated claims that male ski jumpers had resorted to injecting hyaluronic acid into their genitals to gain a competitive advantage.
Then Austrian ski jumper Daniel Tschofenig was banned from the final because his shoes were four millimeters too big.
‘I used new shoes during training,’ he told Austrian broadcaster ORF. ‘I wasn’t really happy with them, but I kept them anyway.
‘Unfortunately, I was naive and didn’t check the sizes. That was incredibly stupid of me.’
