- But what annoys me the most is the fact that FIS(Hofer) is trying to say that without new rules it is just not possible to have 'fair' and 'safe' competition nowdays. But those old rules do not belong to 1930's or 1950's, they were used through this century also!
If the problem was in fairness, what should we think now about all the winners and champions from past 10 years??Was Schmitt lucky in Lahti 2001, was Ljoekelsoey lucky in Planica 2004, was Morgenstern lucky when he won his Olympic title, maybe Ahonen didn't really deserve his 4th and 5th Tournee win? Heck, even this season we had so many exciting and close competitions organized under 'old rules'! Was Kofler only lucky when he won Tournee?? If it is not possible to have fair results without windregel, then all the results from last 10 years (or to be more precise, from the beginning of ski-jumping) should be marked with a asterisk. Of course that sometimes we can have a really 'lucky' winner, but it happens VERY RARE and statistics prove that. And there are situations like that in every sport, just look at formula 1. And believe me, outside conditions can have even more influence on final results in alpine skiing then in ski-jumping. What will FIS do with alpines now? If the reason behind this change was only to increase 'fairness', then Pandora's box has been opened.
If the problem was in safety, then why is ski-jumping so much more safe then for ex. Alpine Skiing, which is also FIS discipline? Heck, we even had terrible injury in cross-country skiing this season. But ski-jumping is a risky sport, and every athlete knows this, and there is always chance of injury. But again, how many major injuries have been in ski-jumping in last 10 years, compared to other sports??Or even better, compared to previous periods from ski-jumping history? This is not only a coincidence. And guess what, in Continental Cup this season we had many situations where jumpers went to extreme distances, and when gate would be 100% lowered with 'new rules', but we never heard anything about 'safety' issue from those competitions. Or this is maybe because Continental Cup is not transmitted on TV anyway?
If the problem was in cancellations of events, then how come there were so few of them in last few seasons?? Again, from last 30 ski-flying competitions in Planica organized under old rules (1997-2009) there was just 1 cancellation! Holmenkollen ski festival was cancelled only twice in whole history! And only 1 cancellation out of 43 events in last two seasons! And guess what, even if we didn't have wind corridor in those events organized under new rules, the results would have changed very little without wind bonuses. In Summer Grand Prix, the winner would remain the same 6 times out of 9 (2 times 2nd placed jumper would have won, and in Einsiedeln, competition where 25th placed jumper had longer total distance and total style points then eventual winner 4th placed jumper would won). In world cup, the winner would remain the same 6 times out of 7, the only exception was Oslo where it was clear how wrong those wind instruments can be. In all 5 measurment points, wind is only measured at the exact time of take-off!
If the problem was in breaks, pauses and restarts (again, restarts do happen VERY rare if we analyze complete seasons) during the competitions, then how come ski-jumping was by far the most popular FIS discipline even with old rules? And all of these information can be found on fis-ski.com, so maybe they were lying in the first place? With these new rules, ski-jumping will certianly loose many fans, and I really doubt that it will attract new fans like it did before.
And finally - all of us who watched Nagano '98 live will never forget when Harada jumped 137m in both individual and team competition.
Did he have favorable wind conditions in individual competition compared to for ex. Peterka ? Maybe, but he was in great form then so he really deserved his medal. Was it dangerous for him to do that? Of course it was. But it was so brave - and that is what makes ski jumping such a great sport. Now imagine if he jumped for ex. 128m from lower starting gate. He would receive same, or even bigger amount of points, that would also be great jump, but it would be forgotten very soon. And that is how ski-jumping would look in the future.