Ski Jumping Season Begins With Microchipped Suits

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Two nights ago, Northeast Ohio got its first snowfall (more on this tweet at the end of the post) resulting in an absolutely gorgeous Thursday Night Football matchup. Also, it’s World Cup ski jumping season!

Unlike international soccer, there are certain sports that hold a World Cup every year. Ski jumping is one of them, and this will be the first season with advanced microchip devices planted all over the inside of the jumpers’ suits. There is a new rule as well which states that jumpers can only wear one suit per competition, and a total of eight for the entire World Cup season. Those who make it to the World Championships can have two more suits. The chips will insure that these suits are not replaced or altered in a way that would give jumpers an unfair advantage.

Here’s a closeup of one of the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips, from both sides:

There are more ads on the jumpers than chips, unfortunately, but it’s close. Men’s suits will have seven chips and women’s suits will have five, placed in strategic locations on the inside. They can be scanned with a phone app either before or after a jump.

Here is a Facebook video showing one of the chips being applied. I don’t have an account and I still could view the video…hopefully you can as well.

The chips cannot be replaced or moved to another suit, said FIS (Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard) Equipment Controller Christian Kathol. “If somebody tries to remove it, even with a knife or a razor blade, it can never be applied again.” 

“We were using one metal chip which was applied after the initial size check,” said Sandro Pertile, Men’s Race Director for FIS Ski Jumping. “But if only one section is marked, you can easily change the rest of the suit to one that’s bigger or with lower permeability.”

The three reasons for the chips are fairness, financial sustainability, and environmental sustainability.

“We started with fairness,” Pertile said. “Very often, the athletes that are successful are those from nations that can invest more money in developing equipment. We are trying somehow to reduce the gap between the top nations and smaller nations in terms of resources…We are not a mass participation sport so having a jumper from perhaps the US, Switzerland, France, Ukraine, or China in the top 10 will increase the value of our sport on a global scale. We really want to be a global sport and not only predominantly a Central European sport.

“That was the start, but also the financial impact on our federation would be huge because we can reduce costs and move this saving into the development of the next generation of ski jumpers. Each suit costs between €600 and €700, so going down from 40 to 10 suits is a big saving.

“The third point is the waste of material if suits are thrown away after just two jumps. And if a suit is damaged due to a fall, the athlete has to report it to the Equipment Controller who will allow a change. They can then replace the damaged section, disconnect the old chip and connect the new chip on the suit. This is far more sustainable than changing the whole suit.”

Why throw away a suit so soon? According to the article I linked to earlier, ski jumping suits have nine sections for men and eleven for women. Tiny holes in the fabric for airflow expand over time, letting more air through and reducing distances. More suits with different cuts or larger sizes would help, but could be discovered by race controllers.

“Every extra centimeter on a suit counts. If your suit has a 5% bigger surface area, you fly further,” Pertile said. “Some athletes from bigger teams would wear a suit for two jumps, and then the team would destroy the suit to stop other teams seeing how it was cut.”

While the more successful countries such as Austria, Germany, Norway, Poland, Japan, and Slovenia have more resources and could have 40-50 suits per jumper, less successful countries (including the US, which cares way more about snowboarding than ski jumping) have less than 10 per jumper. Now, the advantage won’t be as great. It may or may not mean a big change on the medal stand, but Pertile adds, “I expect the suit limitations will mean more athletes from more nations will reach the top 10. And for some nations, a top-10 result is like a victory.” 

He also said both the haves and the have-nots unanimously approved the new regulations. “In principle, everybody sees the opportunity.”

So who made the first podium of the season, which was yesterday’s Large Hill Mixed Team competition? None other than three of the haves: Germany…

…followed by Norway and Austria. The US team didn’t make it to the second round, as Lake Placid native Tate Frantz had a zipper malfunction and wasn’t allowed to jump. He came down the hill on a ski lift instead.

Eurosport reporter Kacper Merk said Frantz’ suit couldn’t be zipped all the way up. “The American didn’t even approach the starting beam because he knew he would be disqualified.

“Disqualifications after a jump, or not being allowed to compete before the attempt, are an inherent part of ski jumping competitions. Especially in recent years, because all measurements of suits have become extremely rigorous. Sometimes just a few millimeters in the wrong direction and the competitor can forget about a good result.”

Notice how all four Germans were wearing the number 9 in their photo? In team jumping, each country is assigned a number, then each jumper has a little 1, 2, 3, or 4 next to it to show in what order they jump. In this event the bibs were color-coded as well. Red jumped first, then green, yellow, and blue. There is no uniformity other than the bibs. Individual jumpers have different suits or helmets, sometimes with different sponsors along with the standard event ads.

The second-place Norwegians were on home soil, as the first weekend of the season is in Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Olympics.

Amazing how it snowed just on the hill, eh? That’s real snow, left over from last year. The Lillehammer organizers created a snow depot, just in case there wasn’t enough (or any) fresh snow for the early-season event. Then they trucked it out to the hill recently.

There’s plenty of snow for the whole weekend. Today and tomorrow feature the men’s and women’s individual competitions. If you have any snow left over, send it my way! Ours melted already, but it was wonderful while it lasted.