Here is the secret of Gregor Deschwanden's results. The miracle worker from Holland found a loophole in the rules

Van Baarle makes one thing clear right away: "I don't know anything about ski jumping." And that's his great advantage. "My ideas are unconventional. I've already been called a lunatic," he says.

The Dutchman has been tinkering with Swiss suits for two years. The job offer from the Swiss Ski Federation surprised him. "A Dutchman in ski jumping? They're crazy!" he thought.

From a postman to working with ski jumpers

After initial skepticism, van Baarle discovered that his knowledge could be transferred to ski jumping. As a sailmaker, he had already worked on how fabric works best in interaction with air.

Van Baarle comes from a windsurfing background, where he became junior world champion in 1990. In 2011, he moved to Switzerland to be with his then-wife. In Switzerland, he worked as a postman, among other things. Six years ago, he opened a sports shop in Einsiedeln.

The ski jumping regulations terrified him and he wanted to quit.

Early in his ski jumping career, Google saved him from an embarrassing mishap. “I didn’t know what Simon Ammann looked like,” he confesses. To recognize the four-time Olympic champion, he memorized his face from a photo on the Internet before their first meeting.

Finding room to maneuver within the ski jumping suit regulations proved to be much more complicated. The rules run to more than 30 pages. "When I first saw them, I wanted to quit immediately. I thought I had no room to maneuver." Now Van Baarle knows the regulations by heart and knows he was wrong.

Not long ago, the Swiss had their overalls sewn by a coach.

The Dutchman is keeping to himself what makes the Swiss suits so good this year. "Coca-Cola won't reveal its recipe for success either," he explains with a laugh. If you look around his shop, you can guess what characterizes it. There are eleven different sewing machines. "I pay attention to every detail." The opinions of athletes are crucial to him.

This professional collaboration between the suit manufacturer and the ski jumpers has only been going on for two years. Before that, it was former head coach Ronny Hornschuh who had to reach for the scissors and needle in the evenings, after watching videos from the ski jump and meeting with the team.

Now van Baarle accompanies the team with two sewing machines and testing equipment to prevent disqualification. However, his influence on World Cup weekends has been limited this season. A new rule is to blame.

FIS's unfulfilled promise

Each competitor can only use ten suits per season. They will be marked by inspectors with microchips and a symbol. Spontaneous changes at the competition venue are no longer possible. "It's much fairer than before," says a satisfied van Baarle.

At the same time, it exposes a financial lie. Organizers had hoped that the new rule would reduce expenses. It would relieve the budgets of small countries like Switzerland. "A misjudgment. Our material costs are just as high as last year," says the Dutchman. The suits are now increasingly tested in training instead of during competitions.

"Gregor Deschwanden would have jumped far even in a sleeping bag"

The fact that even the colour has an influence on the flight behaviour shows how sensitive the suit is. "Each colour has its own properties," van Baarle explains. Above all, however, it is a psychological effect. Deschwanden always jumps in an orange model. "When he flew over the hill with the identical blue version, he did not feel comfortable."

Since last year, the Swiss have been able to produce several exactly identical suits — thanks to a computer-controlled cutting machine. "Before, I had to do everything with scissors. The error rate is relatively high," van Baarle reveals.

Despite the great progress, the Dutchman remains humble. Instead of praising himself, he jokes: "Deschwanden is so good at the moment that he would jump far even in a sleeping bag."