Slovenia won gold in the inaugural mixed team ski jumping event at Winter Olympics on Monday, but it was a competition marred by controversy.

Russia claimed silver at the National Ski Jumping Center in Zhangjiakou, and Canada took a surprise bronze.

Read more: Germany goes for gold as ski jumping mixed team makes its Olympic debut

However, controversy struck when jumpers from major medal contending teams were disqualified over non-regulation suits.

In the first round, Sara Takanashi of Japan, Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria and Katharina Althaus of Germany had their jumps discounted.

Austria and Japan still made it to the final round with a serious point disadvantage. But Germany found itself out of a competition many had expected it to win.

In the final round, it was then the turn of the two female Norwegian jumpers, Silje Opseth and Anna Odine Stroem, to be disqualified.

The mixed team event involves four jumpers – two men and two women – from each team, and their results are combined to determine which team proceeds to the final round and who makes it onto the podium.

"This disqualification is bitter. It sort of came out of nowhere. Katharina's suit was fine (on Saturday) and today it wasn't. It's hard," the German men's ski jumping coach Stefan Horngacher told reporters afterwards.

One favorite, two dark horses

Going into the event, Germany had been widely seen as the favorites, having won world championships four times in a row.

Instead, Slovenia came out strong, with Ursa Bogataj, Nika Kriznar, Peter Prevc and Timi Zajc all delivering solid jumps.

Alongside Germany, Slovenia was a top pick to medal, having won the last World Cup mixed team event two weeks ago and with Bogataj and Kriznar nabbing Olympic gold and bronze in the women's normal hill on Saturday .

Read more: Slovenian 'sisters' celebrate ski jumping double podium, Althaus gets second Olympic silver

Russia and Canada, however, were dark horses. Russia's Evgeniy Klimov, Irina Avvakumova, Danil Sandreev and Irma Makhinia finished with 890.3 points, far behind Slovenia's 1001.5 points. Team Canada, with Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, Abigail Strate, Matthew Soukup and Alexandria Loutitt, took 844.6 points in the final tally.

At the world championships last year, a mere 5.2 points had separated winners Germany and second-placed Norway.

A boost for Russia, Canada

For all three teams on the podium, this was a first mixed team medal at a major event. And the joy was that much greater.

"It means a lot. I didn't expect that I would win the team today, it's my dream.. We have a strong women's and men's team, so we did a great job," said gold medalist Zajc.

Russian jumper Klimov was equally ecstatic: "Finally. We have been waiting for this for a long time. It means a lot and I will say that we deserve this medal as a whole team. At these Games we are working together very well, with a real team spirit."

"This medal is for the whole team, our country, everybody who supported us and cheered for us. We don't have so many fans. I hope that now there will be a lot more of them," he added.

Loutitt also hoped this medal would do something for ski jumping in her country. "This is so special to all of us because this is the first medal in ski jumping for Canada."

"It's kind of a forgotten sport and it's dying, and we're all really hoping this may have changed that tonight."

Despite the controversy surrounding the event, her teammate Strate insisted: "I don't think this is a bittersweet medal at all, I think it's as sweet as a medal can come."

FIS decision 'scandalous', says German technical official

With only three out of four jumps tallied in the first round, there was no coming back for Japan and Austria, and they finished fourth and fifth, while Norway had to settle for the eighth place, with only two jumps counting in the final round.

Equipment checks are routine in ski jumping and it is not unusual for an athlete to be disqualified if anything is off even by 1-2 millimeters.

"(But) that three of the most renowned athletes got disqualified in one round, that's never happened," said Horst Huettel, technical director for Nordic skiing with the German ski federation (DSV), calling the decisions by International Ski Federation (FIS) officials "questionable" and "scandalous."

The mixed team event was making its Olympics debut on Monday and was a welcome second competition for the women, after a first event was added to the program in Sochi in 2014.

"We were so looking forward to having a second competition here at Olympics... With these decisions, FIS have destroyed women's ski jumping," said a disappointed Althaus, who had just won silver in the women's normal hill on Saturday.

(Reporting from Zhangjiakou)