Heartbreak is a pretty common emotion at the Winter Olympics. Athletes work their entire lives for this moment, and many often lose out on glory. However, what if they don’t even get the chance to compete for it? That is what happened in the men’s super team ski jumping event, where the final round was canceled due to inclement weather, and the athletes are fuming.

In accordance with the new format, the best 8 teams were competing for the medals in the final round. Yet, the snow and wind did not let up and intensified as the round progressed. With only a few jumpers left, the round was stopped, and the standings after two rounds were used to determine the winners. Austria took the gold with 568.7 points, while Poland won silver with 547.3, and Norway finished with bronze with 538.

“The result is not what I wanted because in every competition we came to win a medal, but it wasn’t a fortunate day for us,” said Domen Prevc of Slovenia, who finished in fifth place. “And like 1.9 points (behind third place), it’s a really small difference. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side today.”

They had every reason to be disappointed. However, the cancellation and the result were completely in accordance with the rules.

“If only one competition round is held on a competition day due to unfavourable conditions, or if the competition is postponed, and if the regulation according to art. 454.4 is kept; the number of competition rounds that were carried out counts for the result,” the rule book mentions. “As a consequence, the result of the World Ski Flying Championships can consist of only one competition round.”

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The Germans were inches away from the podium. After two rounds, they sat just 0.3 points behind third place.

“It is what it is. But yeah, I’m a bit unhappy,” Germany’s Philipp Raimund, who won a gold medal in the normal hill individual competition earlier in the Games, said after the event. To make matters worse, the weather eased shortly after the decision was announced.

“All people think the same. They think they should have waited longer,” Ren Nikaido of Japan, who was sixth, told Reuters. While many were protesting the decision, Team Norway maintained that it was the correct call.

Team Norway supports the Winter Olympics decision after winning bronze

Well, a decision like this will always raise eyebrows. However, according to the rules, the ski jumping jury has authority over competition management and can interrupt the event when conditions become unsafe or unfair. In this case, Sandro Pertile explained that the heavy, wet snow was slowing speeds on the in-run and that shifting winds could create unfair conditions for the remaining competitors.

The Norway team agreed.

“I think the decision in the end was necessary,” said Norway’s Johann Forfang. “When the snow was that dense and tight, it covered the tracks, and the speed went too much down to continue. And if they were to finish the round, then that would be more unfair than cancelling the second or the third round.”

The decision was potentially advantageous to Norway. There was a distinct possibility they could lose their medal in the final round. However, the concern was very real. The weather can cause injuries or worse. And conditions later in the round were initially expected to deteriorate further, creating major inconsistencies.

Rescheduling at the Winter Olympics is not as straightforward as at other ski jumping events. Venue availability, broadcast windows, security logistics, and overall operational constraints make changes highly impractical and expensive. With the Games set to conclude on February 22, the window to adjust the schedule was extremely limited.