Austrian ski jumper Daniel Tschofenig’s Winter Olympic dreams were dashed after he was found to be wearing oversized shoes.
The 23-year-old had comfortably qualified for Saturday’s final and had been in with a decent shot at winning a medal.
Unfortunately for Tschofenig, he was prevented from competing and disqualified from the event after his footwear was found to have been just four millimetres larger than the rules permitted.
‘I was surprised,’I wore a new shoe during training, and wasn’t actually that happy with it, but I stuck with it.
‘Unfortunately, I was naive and didn’t measure it. Extremely stupid of me, there was just so much stress going on. But rules are rules.’
Tschofenig arrived in Italy confident of finishing on the podium having won the World Cup last year, but his hopes were dashed after his equipment was checked following his first jump.
Despite scoring an impressive 137.7, the Austrian’s competition ended there and then after his shoes were found to have been less than half a centimeter too big.
‘Hang on folks, there are some changes here,’ TNT Sports commentator Ian Findlay said as news broke. ‘We’re just getting news that there has been a disqualification for Daniel Tschofenig.
‘The big news just after the first round, Tschofenig disqualified due to boot size, four millimeteres over,’ Findlay said.
‘He is out of the competition, the first disqualification we’ve had at these Olympic Games in ski jumping and it meant Hector Kapustik gets in.’
Former Slovenian ski jumper Jernej Damjan added: ‘It’s big news. Daniel Tschofenig out and Hektor Kapustik in, which is good for Slovakia.
‘Tschofenig finally finding something extra and when he does, he gets kicked out.’
‘There was a huge improvement compared to training and he found something even more in this first round.
‘He was in eighth place before this disqualification which was not a bad position to be in, he still had a chance to attack.’