(Reuters) – Norway remains to be focusing on gold medals in ski leaping on the Beijing Winter Games regardless that the workforce shall be with out reigning Olympic champion Maren Lundby, members of the Norwegian workforce stated on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Lundby, who gained the conventional hill particular person competitors in Pyeongchang, informed Norway’s NRK TV in October that she wouldn’t take part in Beijing as she struggled to shed some pounds to compete.

Lundby stated that the pure modifications in her physique didn’t match the load calls for {of professional} ski leaping.

“It remains to be the ambition,” ski jumper Thea Minyan Bjorseth informed reporters when requested if Norway may win gold in Lundby’s absence.

“But our season to date has been just a little bit various, just a little bit greater than I needed for.”

Norwegian coach Christian Meyer added: “I feel now we have as many probabilities now as we had earlier. We are ready, and I sit up for beginning.”

The 2022 Games, scheduled for Feb. 4-20, will mark the third time girls compete in ski leaping.

The girls’s ski leaping discipline shall be with out Austrian favorite Marita Kramer as she was dominated out after failing to recuperate from COVID-19.

(Reporting by Tommy Lund, ediitng by Pritha Sarkar)