Decisions of FIS Council at the Spring Meeting 2019

The FIS Council held its Spring Meeting in Cavtat-Dubrovnik (CRO) on Sunday 2nd June and dealt with a full agenda, including proposals from the FIS Technical Committees, FIS World Cup calendars and rules updates, Governance matters, reports from Organising Committees of the FIS World Championships and Olympic Winter Games, the appointment of Technical Officials.

The main decisions of the Council in Dubrovnik follow below. The ‘summary of the FIS Council meeting’ will be published on the FIS website on Tuesday 4th June 2019 containing further information on these items, in addition to all other matters on the agenda:

FIS World Cup Calendars 2019/2020

The FIS World Cup Calendars for the upcoming 2019/2020 season were approved with generally minor modifications proposed by the Technical Committees.

For Alpine Skiing the changes were more significant following the decision of the FIS Council in February 2019 to promote the alpine combined and maintain to it on the programme of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Cortina 2021, along with the introduction of the individual parallel event. The women’s calendar sees the inclusion of four alpine combined competitions with three scheduled for the men.

Of note in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup calendar for the upcoming season is the Far East for the men’s tour where they will compete in the first ever competitions in China, which are also the first official Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Test Event in any sport. Directly afterwards, they compete in Japan for the first time since three seasons.

The FIS Cross Country World Cup presented by Co-op highlight is the première of the ‘Ski Tour 2020’ in February, which begins in Sweden beginning in Ostersund and traveling onward to Norway concluding in Trondheim. Over the New Year period, the 12th edition of the Tour de Ski will kick off in Lenzerheide (SUI) and conclude in Val di Fiemme (ITA).

Ski Jumping will stage the only FIS World Championship event of the season with the FIS Ski Flying World Championships in Planica (SLO) from 20th to 22nd March. The FIS World Cup Ski Jumping Women’s calendar includes the second edition of the Raw Air series in Norway from 3rd to 12th March.

Seefeld (AUT) welcomes the Nordic Combined Triple as the focal point of the season in the discipline, after the Austrian resort staged the successful FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 2019.

The Freeski and Snowboard World Cups will also see approximately half of the events in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events staged together as part of the harmonisation process and coordination between Snowboard and Freestyle Ski.

FIS World Championships and Junior World Championships

The Council confirmed the candidates for the FIS World Championships in 2024 and 2025 as well as the procedure for the election next May at the FIS Congress in Royal Cliff (THA).

--Crans Montana (SUI), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) and Saalbach (AUT) are bidding to host the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, while Trondheim (NOR) is the sole candidate to host the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Krasnoyarsk (RUS) has applied for the FIS Freestyle, Snowboard & Freeski World Championships. Harrachov (CZE) has applied to host the FIS Ski Flying World Championship in 2024, whereby the necessary modifications to the hill are still to be confirmed and therefore the application is open until 1st November 2019.

--The original dates of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2021 in Cortina (ITA) from 8th to 21st February 2021 were confirmed with the inclusion of both the individual parallel and alpine combined competitions.

--The competition programme for the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships 2021 in Zhangjiakou/Genting (CHN) was approved.

Olympic Winter Games

Reports were received from Beijing 2022 with a detailed planning report for the Test Events in all six FIS disciplines set to take place beginning next season. The Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 also provided its last status update before the event in January 2020.

Technical Committees

Various updates to the International Competition Rules (ICR) were made. A more detailed summary for each discipline will be published in the next edition of the FIS Newsflash. Key decisions include the following:

Cross-Country Skiing

--Adaptations were made to the Tour de Ski formats including the final stage, the Alpe Cermis climb in Val di Fiemme (ITA), which will now be a mass start.

--The ‘Winner of the Day’ and overall standings in a stage competition has a more in-depth definition.

Ski Jumping

--Prize money for the 2020/2021 season will be confirmed for all disciplines at the FIS Council Meeting in the autumn, however the Organisers of Women’s Ski Jumping World Cup competitions have unanimously agreed to fast-track an increase for the upcoming season to 25,000 CHF divided between the top 20 athletes.

Nordic Combined

--A mixed team event will be introduced at the Junior World Ski Championships beginning at this season’s event in Oberwiesenthal (GER).

--The first calendar for the Women’s World Cup for 2020/2021 was presented.

Alpine Skiing

--A WCSL (World Cup Starting List) for parallel will be established for the 2020/2021 season. All parallel competitions will have a qualification race which will consist of 32 athletes. The top 16 athletes will qualify for the final and earn World Cup points awarded, in addition to the athletes placed 17th-30th in the qualification race.

--A reduction in the start field for men’s competitions was approved. An athlete must be ranked within the first 150 on the FIS points list or in the top 30 of the WCSL in any event, from the previous level of maximum 80 points. This would result in a reduction of approximately 5-10 athletes per competition.

Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski

--Rules for the mixed team aerials competition were defined.

--Harmonisation of the international competition rules (ICR) between Freestyle Skiing, Freeski and Snowboarding has been carried out, in addition to continuing to adapt the calendar to maximize the number of common, coordinated events.

Other regulations, disciplines and FIS Committees

--Updates to the Rules for Masters Skiing, Speed Skiing, Telemark, Equipment and Advertising Matters were agreed.

--The International Competition Rules now incorporate the prohibition of the use of oxygen in-competition for all disciplines.

Change of Licence Registration

Several athletes have changed their National Association licence registration in accordance with birth, family and/or residence requirements. Notably Romed Baumann, Alpine Combined bronze medallist from Schladming 2013 has transferred from Austria to Germany.

FIS Competition Management

Peter Gerdol, FIS Continental Cup Coordinator since 2014, will take over the role of FIS Alpine Womens’ Chief Race Director from Atle Skaardal who will change his role within FIS and become the FIS Alpine Technical Expert. Atle’s main tasks include working with Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, coordination of technical aspects with FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Organisers and Candidates, as well as leading projects in the Injury Surveillance System and with alpine skiing equipment and technical material.

Walter Hofer will retire after the 2019-20 season as Ski Jumping Race Director. His successor will be Sandro Pertile (ITA) from Val di Fiemme, who has considerable experience as a FIS Technical Delegate and leading Ski Jumping within Organising Committees at the Olympic Winter Games, FIS World Championships and World Cup and other level events.

Governance of FIS

Following the inaugural Presidents Conference on Saturday, which unanimously approved the FIS Accounts for 2018, the Council reviewed the accounts for the first period of 2019 and financial affairs of FIS. Updates were provided by the two working groups for Gender Equity and Governance.

Gender Equity

The Council unanimously approved the Gender Equity Working Group’s proposal to increase the number of FIS Council Members by two to 18, plus the President, plus two members of the FIS Athletes Commission. A minimum of three will be reserved for the other gender and the Athletes Commission members must represent both genders and two disciplines.

The implementation of the new composition of the Council at the election during the FIS Congress 2020 is strongly supported by the Council.

The proposal of the Gender Equity Working Group, the Sub-Committees for Ladies´ Cross-Country and Alpine Skiing and the Athletes Commission to change the terminology used by FIS, from "Ladies" to "Women" in the English language will be implemented forthwith.

Anti-Doping Update

The current status of cases and actions by FIS and updates on both National and International level doping cases were reviewed. The Council welcomed the FIS decision to delegate the adjudication of doping cases to the newly established Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) permanent Anti-Doping Division (ADD) to act as an independent first instance for international cases.

FIS National Associations

--The provisional membership application from Vanuatu as associate member was accepted, subject to the approval of the FIS Congress in 2020.

--Ski and Snowboard India was acknowledged as the new governing body in the country.

Committee Members / Technical Officials

On the proposal of the National Ski Associations, exchanges to a number of Committee Members were made on request of the National Ski Associations.

FIS Technical Officials were assigned to serve at upcoming Major Events: Olympic Winter Games, FIS World Championships and other Multi-Sport Games. Similarly the Organising Committees’ proposals for their key Officials of the upcoming Major Events were approved.

The members of the Athletes’ Commission 2019 - 2021 were confirmed following the elections held at the FIS World Championships 2019. Hannah Kearney, USA (Freestyle Skiing), and Martti Jylhä, FIN (Cross Country) were elected as Co-Chairs by their fellow FIS Athletes’ Commission members.

FIS Congress 2022

The Council appointed Vilamoura (POR) to host the 53rd International Ski Congress in 2022.

FIS World Snow Day

The ninth edition of FIS World Snow Day will take place on 19th January 2020 after more than a half a million participants took part in the eighth edition.

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