(Reuters) – Norway is still targeting gold medals in ski jumping at the Beijing Winter Games even though the team will be without reigning Olympic champion Maren Lundby, members of the Norwegian team said on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Lundby, who won the normal hill individual competition in Pyeongchang, told Norway’s NRK TV in October that she would not participate in Beijing as she struggled to lose weight to compete.
Lundby said that the natural changes in her body did not match the weight demands of professional ski jumping.
“It is still the ambition,” ski jumper Thea Minyan Bjorseth told reporters when asked if Norway could win gold in Lundby’s absence.
“But our season so far has been a little bit varying, a little bit more than I wished for.”
Norwegian coach Christian Meyer added: “I think we have as many chances now as we had earlier. We are prepared, and I look forward to starting.”
The 2022 Games, scheduled for Feb. 4-20, will mark the third time women compete in ski jumping.
The women’s ski jumping field will be without Austrian favourite Marita Kramer as she was ruled out after failing to recover from COVID-19.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund, ediitng by Pritha Sarkar)
