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Peter Schlickenrieder, national coach of the German cross-country skiers, speaks to journalists in Val di Fiemme during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. Daniel Karmann/dpa
German cross country coach Peter Schlickenrieder has hit out at the governing body FIS in connection with a Finnish protest against the Olympic men's cross country sprint results.
"In my opinion, this is a clear failure on the part of FIS officials – yet again. This is simply embarrassing for the FIS department. The FIS needs to take responsibility for this," Schlickenrieder said on Saturday.
The statement came after the Finnish ski federation announced a protest against the sprint results because the governing body FIS violated its own rules towards medallists Norway and United States.
The race on Tuesday was won by Norwegian star Johannes Høsflot Klæbo ahead of American Ben Ogden and a second Norwegian, Oskar Opstad Vike. Finland's Lauri Vuorinen was fourth.
In the joint protest with the Finnish Olympic committee, the FIS is accused of violating "the principles of fair play and its own rules" when it allowed Norway to use a waxing pad in the service area and a US team member used a banned liquid there.
The service area is where the skis are prepared.
The statement said that teams were told that waxing pads were prohibited and not informed about the exemption made for Norway.
The banned substance used by the US team member was allegedly a wax remover, which he said he only used to wash his hands.
The protest said that the FIS has apologized and admitted to a mistake in the incidents, which only came to light after the competition, but that this was not good enough.
"The ski federation and the Olympic Committee are demanding that the competition results be corrected to a situation where no one has gained an advantage through actions that violate the rules," the statement said.
Finnish ski federation managing director Marleena Valtasola said that "we want to highlight the shortcomings and work to ensure that in top-level sports, the rules are the same for everyone and known to all.
"The FIS itself has admitted that it made a mistake, which has resulted in unfair competition in which two countries have gained an unreasonable advantage without the others knowing.
"This kind of behaviour is unacceptable, and simply admitting the mistake or apologizing does not repair the damage that has been done."
The Finns were backed by German head coach Schlickenrieder, who accused the FIS of "failure" to implement its rules.
Schlickenrieder said: "If a mistake like that happens to you as coach you are fined €1,000. And those responsible at the FIS only say 'sorry'. That's a bit lame."
However, Schlickenrieder also said he doesn't expect the Finnish protest to be successful.
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