The Norwegian Maren Lundby in Pyeongchang
Photo: KAI PFAFFENBACH / REUTERS
Olympic ski jumping champion Maren Lundby skips the 2021/2022 Olympic season.
The Norwegian, who won gold in Pyeongchang in 2018 and was crowned world champion in 2019 and this year, is also renouncing the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing because her body has "changed", as she tearfully said on TV station NRK .
Lundby said she was struggling to meet the weight requirements and was unwilling to irresponsibly lose weight.
“Ski jumping is very demanding, weight is part of it.
My body has changed recently, so I don't want to sacrifice everything to be at the top level in Beijing, ”Lundby said.
This decision was very difficult for her, "but it just doesn't work this season."
Message to the next generation
Her priority is her health - a message that she also wants to convey to young female jumpers.
Uncompromising weight control should "not be an issue": "You can destroy everything with that," she said.
With the standing and self-confidence of one of the most successful jumpers in history, it is easier to pull the brakes than for a young athlete, Lundby knows that.
Nevertheless, she wants to send a signal - she is not ready to sacrifice her health: »I love ski jumping.
But I prefer to have a long career. "
The 27-year-old Lundby won individual gold in 2018, and in 2021 in Oberstdorf she made ski jumping history as the first world champion of the large hill.
In total, she won 30 World Cups and three times the overall ranking.
Lundby already skipped the summer season, but wants to come back after a break.
Body weight in ski jumping has been an issue for a long time.
The German ski jumping star Martin Schmitt, for example, justified an exhaustion syndrome with the strict diets that a ski jumper had to adhere to.
His colleague Sven Hannawald encountered rumors of anorexia, in 2004 he went public and talked about his burn-out illness before he withdrew from competitive sports.
ngo / sid
