Who would have thought that elements of football would be introduced one day in ski jumping? Admittedly, I didn't. But it was also somehow obvious that the International Ski Federation would have to react after the incidents at the World Championships in Trondheim.

For those who haven't heard about it from the media, here's a quick refresher on equipment knowledge.

In the future, anyone who is disqualified (or not allowed to compete at all) due to a non-compliant suit will receive a yellow card. Similar to football, it's a kind of warning.

If the same athlete receives another yellow card, it results in a suspension. This can be for either one day of competition or an entire weekend, depending on how many competitions are scheduled at a venue. The suspended athlete may not be replaced for that weekend, which means the nation loses a starting spot. In a team ski jumping event, the entire team will be removed from the competition if an athlete is found to have committed an equipment violation. Previously, only the jump of this specific athlete was canceled.

My work as a track constructor makes me an advocate for fair conditions. In my field, too, the primary goal is to create fair conditions for the inrun from the first to the last athlete. I therefore welcome every measure in the rules, no matter how small, that contributes to making the sport a little fairer. What we saw in Trondheim was anything but a minor offense – and something like that must be prevented in the future. All athletes should be able to jump under equally fair conditions.

You can't expect only fair athletes in elite sport. Too much money and recognition are at stake for that.

Everyone tries to optimize even the smallest cog in the machine to gain that one meter or point. However, if this optimization occurs in an area that goes beyond the famous gray area and into the black, it must be stopped.

I think it's great that the FIS and everyone involved reacted so quickly and found a system that makes the competitions even fairer. Even if you can still optimize things within the regulations and perhaps gain a small advantage over others, the yellow and red cards hang like the sword of Damocles over the athletes and certainly have a major deterrent effect.