Article by Romeo Ene – Published Monday, February 16, 2026, 6:20 p.m. / Updated Monday, February 16, 2026, 6:24 p.m.
Austrian ski jumper Daniel Tschofenig, 23, said he felt “extremely stupid” after being disqualified from the men's high springboard individual event for wearing the wrong boot size.
Schofenig had qualified smoothly for Saturday's final, but his hopes of a medal at the Winter Olympics were dashed by an equipment failure.
Austrian ski jumper Daniel Tschofenig, disqualified because of his boots
The athlete, winner of the 2025 World Cup, was wearing cleats four millimeters larger than the regulation allows.
“I used new boots in training, which I wasn't very happy with by the way, but I kept them,” said Tschofenig, according to the BBC.
“Unfortunately, I was naive and didn't measure them. Extremely stupid of me, it was a lot of stress. But rules are rules.”
Tschofenig had scored 137.7 in the first round, but the rule violation resulted in his immediate disqualification, giving Slovakia's Hektor Kapustik a place in the final.
Slovenia's Domen Prevc won the gold medal, while Japan's Ren Nikaido took the silver and Poland's Kacper Tomasiak the bronze.
On Sunday, US ski jumper Annika Belshaw was disqualified from the women's high springboard individual event because her skis were more than a centimeter too long.
Like Tschofenig, Belshaw, 23, had qualified for the final but was unable to participate.
