So, I've spoke with Tim at length about this and was getting texts throughout the day it happened. The short version is, he had the opportunity to shorten his handle. It was getting close to his time to ski and he didn't have anything with him to fix it. He took a gamble.
That said, before he skied he had it measured and the person on the dock measuring handles said it was good. He also had two other people look at it (both TC's and very high level judges in their own right) and they said it was good. BUT, as Tim told me, "my bad choice." The handle is just over a year old and he didn't think it would stretch out of tolerance at this point in it use cycle. It's had plenty of load put on it in the last year. I can attest to that.
Ultimately, what it came down to was the rule Horton posted. CJ, appointed judges, et al, got together asked, I presume, the dock starter (TC's designee)... was it in before he skied (yes), was it out after he skied (yes) then according to the rule (zero). There was a bunch of drama in between. Including, from what I understand, a measurement of the handle where it was deemed in tolerance. Which brought another delay in the ruling.
What no one has said so far is, the reason all this came about was due to a protest by, again I presume, one of the skiers. Which triggers all kinds of thoughts for me. The logical and calmer side of me... the protester would have had to see the handle get measured after the ski ride. The protest was made because the TC's designee was not going to make the necessary "zero call". What if this skiers score would have netted him a 4th, 7th of 12th place finish? Would you still have protested. Where as the not so calm me thinks, what a chicken shit move to file a protest against a fellow skier when he clearly did not intend to cheat. You're an egotistical ass and your one additional position in the standings apparently means enough to you to take a score from another competitor over something which clearly did not give him an advantage.
Look, many of us have had judges calls go for or against us, but I, personally, would have let the judges make the call and let the chips fall where they may. But that's just me. Hell, maybe I'm doing this for all the wrong reasons.