Decisions Of FIS Council Online Spring Meeting 2021 Announced
The FIS Council held its Spring meeting online on Tuesday 1st June and dealt with a full agenda, including items such as reports from Organising Committees of the FIS World Championships and Olympic Winter Games, the appointment of technical officials, proposals from the FIS Technical Committees, FIS World Cup calendars and rules updates.
The main decisions of the online Council meeting are as follows:
FIS World Cup calendars 2021-2022
With the exception of Alpine, the FIS World Cup Calendars for the upcoming 2021-2022 season were approved by the Technical Committees. Additionally, the long-term calendars were received by the Council.
The approved calendars for 2021-2022 season will be on the FIS website.
FIS World Championships – Election and Appointment of Future Hosts
The Council acknowledged the receipt of applications from the following Candidates to host the 2026 and 2027 FIS World Championships:
- Four applications for the 2027 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships: Crans Montana (SUI), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER), Narvik (NOR) and Soldeu (AND).
- One application for the 2027 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships: Falun (SWE)
- One application for the 2026 FIS Ski Flying World Championship: Oberstdorf (GER)
- The Council will extend the deadline for applying to host the 2027 FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships until 1st October.
Additionally, the following venues were approved as hosts of FIS World Championships:
- Muerren (SUI) as the Organiser of the FIS Telemark World Championships 2023.
- Muerren (SUI) 2021 FIS Telemark Junior World Championships.
Future Olympic Winter Games and World Championship Reports
Video reports were received from all of the hosts of the upcoming 2022 and 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and Cortina-Milano, respectively.
Additionally, video reports were received from all of the hosts of the future FIS World Championships who have been elected through 2025. Additionally, representative Council members provide an oral report about the preparations for all assigned FIS Junior World Championships through 2025.
Preparations for all of the above events are on schedule and progressing well.
Fluorinated Ski Wax Prohibition
The full implementation of a Fluorine Tracker that will instantly detect the presence of fluorine wax on skis will be postponed until after the season 2021/2022. In the following season, the device will be further tested in the real implementation process during the competition season, without penalisation. The implementation process was unfortunately not possible to test during the last season due to the pandemic situation. Reports about the next steps in the development will be prepared for the Council for autumn 2021.
FIS maintains its commitment to developing a reliable test method which guarantees the integrity of its competitions.
Change of License Registration
A total of 31 athletes across all FIS disciplines have changed their National Association licence registration in accordance with birth, family and/or residence requirements.
Technical Committees
Various updates to the International Competition Rules (ICR) were made. A more detailed summary for each discipline has been published on the FIS website. Noteworthy decisions from each discipline include the following:
Cross-Country Skiing
The qualification system in Team sprints from Semi-Finals to Finals was modified to four qualifying teams from each Semi-Final (instead of two) plus two lucky losers (instead of four).
The long-term calendar, which will see five blocks to help reduce travel was approved.
Ski Jumping
The number of participants will be calculated periodically according to the top 50 competitors in the World Cup Allocation List, instead of the top 55.
Nordic Combined
Val di Fiemme (ITA) will host the first-ever Mixed Team World Cup competition. Additionally, changes to the rules for the Seefeld Triple were approved.
Alpine Skiing
The use of cut-resistant underwear, as well as airbags will be recommended for the coming season and discussions to make them mandatory as of the 2022/23 season will be held.
Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski
Crystal globes will now be awarded to the top men and women of dual moguls. This means there will be globes awarded for both individual and dual moguls.
A new rule stating that men will always start first at mixed team events in parallel snowboard competitions was approved.
Anti-Doping Update
The Council also acknowledged the current status of cases and actions by FIS and received updates on both National and International level doping cases including updates on the Russian Doping case. Additionally, the final report was given in relation to ‘Operation Aderlass’ from February 2019.
Honorary Committee Members
The following individuals granted given Honorary Committee Membership status thanks to their long-term dedication to FIS: Paul Ganzenhuber – Ski Jumping, Martin Berthod – Alpine, Karl-Heinz Lickert – Cross Country, Dietmar Miklautsch – Cross Country, Angelo Corradini – Cross Country.
Special Recognition
The Council decided to award Mr. Janez Kocijancic with a “recognition for special contribution” for his many years serving the FIS Council. This award will be handed over to the Slovenian Ski Association over the next weeks.
FIS Future Working Group
The FIS Future Working Group, reported that based upon the information received, all of the candidates are eligible for the election and the Council approved this proposal.
FIS Congress
The 53rd International Ski Congress in Vilamoura (POR) is scheduled from Sunday 22nd to Saturday 28th May 2022. Furthermore, The FIS Calendar Conference will take place in Cavtat-Dubrovnik (CRO) at Hotel Croatia from 28th May to 1st June 2023.
FIS National Associations
The provisional membership applications from Cape Verde and Tanzania as associate members were accepted and will join Panama, United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu to be put forward for the approval of the upcoming FIS Congress.
