German and Austrian officials have lamented a strict quota system that means several top winter sports athletes will miss next month’s Olympics in Milan/Cortina.
The German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) will nominate its team in Munich on Tuesday. But ski jumper Karl Geiger will be absent, along with luge world champions Paul Gubitz and Hannes Orlamünder and European champions Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and ski body International Ski Federation (FIS) want to allow as many countries as possible to take part in the February 6-22 Games without increasing the number of athletes, leading to reduced quotas for winter sports powerhouses.
Wolfgang Maier, sports director of the German Ski Association, said: “For many years, quota calculations have been incorrect. The fact that a country that can only field one World Cup-level athlete, for example, gets three starting places is not in the interest of elite sport.”
“But there is really no point in continuing to talk about this in public because the decision-makers are the International Ski Federation and the International Olympic Committee.”
Tropical Brazil could send three alpine skiers to the Olympics as of Saturday, thanks to the performance of Norwegian-born Lucas Pinheiro Braassen, whose mother is Brazilian, according to the International Ski Federation.
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Marko Pfeifer, coach of the Austrian men’s ski team, told APA: “The topic was discussed in coaches’ meetings and some people bluntly said that this allocation is nonsense.”
In the men’s Nordic combined events, which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing, only three athletes on the German team have qualified for the Olympics.
“It is very, very unfortunate that our quota has been cut like this. It is very sad that we are now down to three people,” said German Olympic champion Vincenz Geiger.
There is no women’s event in Italy – bad news for German World Cup winner Natalie Armbruster – while the men’s event could be canceled in 2030.
