FIS Ski World Cup Season Arrives -- Federations Focus

(ATR) The 2017/18 Audi FIS Ski World Cup season opens this weekend.

The men’s and women’s giant slaloms will kick off this Olympic season on the Rettenbach glacier in Soelden, Austria.

A number of teams had the rare opportunity to train on the race slope last week before it was closed ahead of the scheduled competition.

"Everyone raved about the shape that the slope is in, and winter-like conditions should prevail in the area throughout this week," men’s Chief Race Director Markus Waldner said in a statement.

The traditional FIS Forum Alpinum will be held Friday on the eve of the opening races. A question and answer period with FIS President Gian Franco Kasper and a session with 2016/17 overall World Cup winners Marcel Hirscher and Mikeala Shiffrin are among the highlights of the event.

Lindsey Vonn won’t begin her season until early December, when she competes in the speed races at Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. She is looking to surpass Ingemar Stenmark for most career World Cup wins. Vonn has 77 and needs nine more to equal the Swede.

World Taekwondo Council Plans for Tokyo 2020

Leaders of World Taekwondo gathered in London on Oct. 21 to lay out a roadmap for athletes on the path to the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

The World Taekwondo Extraordinary Congress covered a range of strategic areas seeking to optimize the development and preparation of its athletes for the Olympics, according to the federation.

The congress also extensively covered issues of good governance, highlighting the results of the ASOIF Good Governance survey which asked International Federations to be introspective in regard to their own governance structure. WT president Chungwon Choue identified financial transparency as an opportunity for governance reform.

Reports on taekwondo competitions were also delivered during the congress, focusing on ways to maximize fan engagement in the lead up to the next Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo. The procedure to determine standings for the Paralympics was ratified, with 72 para taekwondo athletes competing across six medal events during the Games.

The start of the Grand Slam Champions Series was a major point of emphasis during the congress, a competition series designed to increase media exposure with 12 fighters in eight weight categories competing for record prize money.

Lastly, the council held a moment of silence for the founder of World Taekwondo Um Yong Kim who died in October.

"Taekwondo’s future is even brighter than its past," WT president Choue said in a statement. "But we will not rest on our laurels. We will accelerate our efforts to innovate and evolve. We have so much to look forward to in the years ahead and by working together with the whole taekwondo family I have no doubt we will have great success."

The next WT Council is scheduled for April 4, 2018 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The meeting will precede the qualification tournament for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games and 2018 World Taekwondo Junior Championships also in Hammamet.

Wanted: Bidders to Host WFDF Events

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is seeking bids for the upcoming 2019 and 2020 WFDF Ultimate Championship events.

Any individual, group, organization or club may bid to host one or more of the WFDF Grass Ultimate event(s) below:

• WFDF 2019 World Under-24 Ultimate Championships (WU24 2019)

• WFDF 2019 Pan American Ultimate Championships (PAUC2019)

• WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Ultimate Championships (AOUC2019)

• WFDF 2019 All Africa Ultimate Championships (AAUC2019)

• WFDF 2020 World Ultimate & Guts Championships (WUGC 2020)

• WFDF 2020 World Masters Ultimate Championships (WMUC2020)

• WFDF 2020 World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC2020)

The WFDF requires an initial expression of interest (EoI) from all prospective bidders/hosts to begin the process.

The EoI bidding form is available here. For additional information, contact WFDF Event Manager Karina Woldt (karina.woldt@wfdf.org), Ultimate Committee Chair Brian Gisel (brian.gisel@wfdf.org) or Executive Director Volker Bernardi (volker.bernardi@wfdf.org).

Correction: Incorrect Federation Listing in Union of Sports Federations of Catalonia

In the Around the Rings article on Oct. 4, the International Federations of Bodybuilding and Karate were incorrectly identified as members of the Union of Sports Federations of Catalonia. The misprint has since been corrected.

Click here for the original article with the correction.

Click here for the article in Spanish.

Written by Gerard Farek and Kevin Nutley

Forgeneral comments or questions, click here.

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about theOlympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.