Coaches called an Olympic ski jumping contest a 'parody' and 'puppet theatre' after 5 athletes got disqualified

• Five women were disqualified from ski jumping mixed-team event at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
• They were said to be wearing baggy clothes that could have given them extra loft in the air.

Olympic ski jumping coaches called the Beijing Games' mixed team contest a "parody" and a "puppet theatre" after five athletes were disqualified for wearing clothes that were too baggy.

The skiers, all of whom were women, were said to be wearing loose-fitting clothes that judges ruled could have given them extra loft in the air.

Germany, which has won four successive world championships, failed to progress from the opening round after Katharina Althaus was disqualified for a suit violation, while athletes from Austria, Japan, and Norway were also disqualified.

Amid the chaos, Slovenia won gold, the Russian Olympic Committee claimed the silver medal, and Canada, rank outsiders, won bronze.

"For me it is a puppet theatre. The entire season the suits have been an issue," Germany's national team coach, Stefan Horngacher, said, according to The Guardian. "I am unbelievably angry and I don't understand it. We had super jumps, you can only be disappointed with this."

"This is a parody, but I am not laughing," Germany's head of Nordic events, Horst Hüttel, said. "It is outrageous that this happens with the four biggest ski-jump nations."

Althaus, who wore the same suit for the individual event on Saturday in which she won silver, hit out at the International Ski Federation (FIS).

"The FIS destroyed everything with this operation," she said. "I think they have destroyed women's ski jumping. I have been checked so many times in 11 years of ski jumping, and I have never been disqualified once. I know my suit was compliant."

Taking to Instagram, Althaus added: "160 World Cup starts, 5x World Championships, 3x Olympic Games and I got [disqualified] for the first time. My heart is broken."

Norway's Silje Opseth, who was struck out alongside compatriot Anna Odine Strøm, said: "I am just shocked. I do not understand anything about what happened today."

Strøm claimed officials on the day had used a different method to measure her suit.

"It was a bit strange and didn't conform to how it's been done in the past," she said. "It is a bit the result of me being in quarantine and not eating properly the whole week."

Japan's Sara Takanashi and Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria were the other two skiers to be disqualified.

Despite the controversy, however, Canada's Abigail Strate was still delighted with her bronze.

"I don't think this is a bittersweet medal at all," she said, according to Yahoo. "I think it's as sweet as a medal can come."

"Even if you count all the distances and judge points from the unlucky ones on today's competition," Slovenia's Peter Prevc said.

"We should still be first, so it's still great."