Austrian ski jumper Daniel Tschofenig said he felt “extremely stupid” after being disqualified from the men’s large hill individual event for wearing oversized boots.
Tschofenig, 23, had comfortably qualified for Saturday’s final but his Winter Olympics medal hopes were dashed due to an error with his kit.
The 2025 World Cup champion was found to be wearing boots that were four millimetres larger than the rules permitted.
“I used new shoes in training which, by the way, I wasn’t very happy with, but I kept them,” Tschofenig said.
“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 had scored 137.7 in the first round but his rule breach led to an immediate disqualification and handed Slovakia’s Hektor Kapustik a route through to the final.
Slovenia’s Domen Prevc went on to win gold with Ren Nikaido of Japan taking silver and Poland’s Kacper Tomasiak picking up bronze.