FIS. The FIS Council held its spring meetings during the FIS Congress Week in Kangwonland (KOR) from 27th May to 2nd June. The Council dealt with a full agenda including reports by Organizing Committees from the concluded as well as the future senior and junior FIS World Championships, Olympic Winter Games and Youth Olympic Games, requests for FIS Solidarity financial support to assist with special development projects from the member National Ski Associations, appointment of technical officials, proposals from the FIS Technical Committees with calendar scheduled and updates to various rules.

The main decisions of the Council in Kangwonland include the following:

Decisions directly related to ski sports

FIS World Cup calendars 2012/2013
Please see the final versions on the FIS Website under the respective discipline World Cups.

Organizers of FIS World Championships 2012-2013
The following Organizers of FIS World Championships and Junior World Championships were appointed:

- The Italian Winter Sports Federation with Valmalenco for FIS Junior Freestyle World Ski Championships 2014
- The Chinese Ski Association with Harbin for the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships 2015
- German Ski Association with Bad Peterstal for the FIS Roller Skiing World Championships 2013
- Austrian Ski Association with Rettenbach/Bad Tatzmannsdorf for the FIS Grass Skiing Junior World Championships 2013

Proposals and requests from the Technical Committees

Cross-Country Skiing
- Increase of allowed length of sprint courses for the ladies to 1.6km, from 1.4km
- Clarification of procedures for penalties including special rules for allowing substitution of disqualification with time penalty in multi-stage events, as per decision of the competition jury
- New specifications for size of waxing containers and for handling of team waxing trucks as well as for athlete rooms and team catering

Ski Jumping
- Approval of a change of the in-run length in the middle of a competition round in competitions where the wind/gate compensation system is in use, in order to ensure safety and fairness. A head coach may also reduce the in-run for his individual athletes.
- Approval for ladies Ski Jumping of the use of large hills at the World Cup Final and when the starting field is limited to the top 30 athletes in the current World Cup rankings.
- Increase of ladies BMI to 21(same as for men)
- Approval of new regulations for closer fitting ski jumping suits for both men and ladies
- Approval of the use of an artificial in-run track in winter competitions in exceptional cases

Nordic Combined
- Clarification of Nordic Combined race formats to include

- the provisional competition round (PCR) Ski Jumping
- one or two competition rounds Ski Jumping
- one 10 km Cross-Country race (individual Gundersen and penalty race)
- one 15 km Cross-Country race (Gundersen final)
- 4 x 5 km for Team and 2 x 7.5 km Cross-Country race for the Team Sprint.

- Clarification of rules for the penalty race where the jumping will be conducted as Gundersen format jumping (with judging and wind/gate compensation) and the number of penalty laps will be determined based on point differences.

Alpine Skiing
- Approval of new helmet specifications from season 2013/14 until end of season 2017/18 based on the proposal of SRS (Ski Racing Suppliers).
- Approval of stepping back to be only allowed in slalom

Freestyle Skiing
- Ski cross minimum age increased to 16 from 15 in line with FIS Alpine Skiing regulations for FIS competition participation valid from 2012/13
- Adaptation of rules regarding tie-breaks during qualification phases and World Cup quotas

Snowboard
- Clarification of allocation of the overall World Cup titles for the Snowboard freestyle events (halfpipe, slopestyle and big air) and for the Snowboard parallel events.
- FIS World Cup event titles to be awarded in Snowboard parallel giant slalom, parallel slalom, halfpipe, snowboard cross, big air and slopestyle

Other Committees
Telemark
- Introduction of a Telemark event, the team Telemark parallel sprint, and a new Telemark overall category award, the Nations' Cup.

Competition Equipment - Safety

- New specification that competition suits and clothing worn underneath, such as undergarments, etc., must have a textile surface on both the inside and outside. These surfaces may not be plasticized or treated by any chemical means (gaseous, liquid or solid) and must have a minimum permeability of 30 liters per m2/sec.

- Appointment of FIS Council Member Michel Vion to oversee and coordinate the various different activities with regard to safety across all FIS disciplines, including chairing the Freestyle Ski Cross working group.

Administrative decisions

- Following the tabling by the 2012 Congress of the affiliation of Kosovo as associate member, affiliation of Kosovo as a provisional member of FIS in order to allow the athletes to compete.

- Temporary suspension of the membership of the Bolivian Ski Association due to a lack of clarity regarding the status and elected leadership of the association. Nevertheless, the Council agreed that the athletes should not be penalized and they would be allowed to participate in FIS races.

- Approval of inclusion of a member of the Athletes Commission on the Executive Board of each of the FIS disciplines.

- Change of the length of service for members of the Athletes Commission to two years as per all other FIS Committees, beginning with elections at the FIS World Championships 2013.

- On proposal of the Committee for Advertising Matters, approval of a distinction between the so-called "Effective Manufacturer" and "Manufacturer Identification".

FIS
Oberhofen, 4th June 2012

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