FIS. The 51st International Ski Congress in Costa Navarino (GRE) from 13th – 19th May was attended by more than 1,100 participants from the global ski family including delegates, representatives of National Ski Associations, Organising Committees, the ski industry, FIS partners and the media, who took part in more than 100 official meetings. The Hellenic Winter Sports Federation took great pride in hosting the most important biannual gathering of FIS, marking the second time the nation hosted the FIS Congress.

© Agence Zoom

The General Assembly - the FIS Congress - held on Friday 18th May, with 68 voting National Ski Associations present, made the following important decisions:

FIS President Gian Franco Kasper re-elected
FIS President Gian Franco Kasper was re-elected for his sixth term by the Congress with a standing ovation. Kasper is the fourth president in the history of FIS since its founding in 1924.

Three new members elected to FIS Council
The following members were elected to the FIS Council for the upcoming two-year period, 2018-2020 (in alphabetical order of last name): Steve Dong Yang (CHN), Erik Roeste (NOR) and Eduardo Valenzuela (SPA) are the newly-elected members.

ÅRJES Mats, SWE, 117 votes
BOKAREV Andrey, RUS, 103 votes
DONG YANG Steve, CHN, 119 votes
GOSPER Dean, AUS, 118 votes
HOERMANN Alfons, GER, 119 votes
KOCIJANCIC Janez, SLO, 117 votes
KUMPOST Roman, CZE, 103 votes
MURASATO Aki, JPN, 121 votes
PAINE Dexter, USA, 119 votes
RODA Flavio, ITA, 117 votes
ROESTE Erik, NOR, 112 votes
SCHROECKSNADEL Peter, AUT, 113 votes
SMITH Patrick, CAN, 121 votes
UUSITALO Martti, FIN, 117 votes
VALENZUELA Eduardo, ESP, 106 votes
VION Michel, FRA, 121 votes

The maximum number of votes available: 121 votes

FIS Athlete Commission Member representation on FIS Council
In 2016, the Congress unanimously approved a change of Statutes to include a representative of the FIS Athlete’s Commission proposed by the Athletes Commission itself, as a member of the FIS Council with voting rights. Furthermore, the Congress 2018 approved the proposal to include a second FIS Athlete’s Commission representative of the other gender and another discipline and agreed to implement the decision immediately.

The Congress unanimously elected Konstantin Schad (GER), Snowboard and Hannah Kearney (USA), Freestyle Skiing as the two Athlete Commission members of the FIS Council for the 2018-2020 period.

Honorary Members of FIS
Sverre Seeberg (NOR) and Eduardo Roldan (ESP) were made Honorary Members of FIS after serving 14 and 12 years as Council Members. Sverre Seeberg has also served as the Treasurer and Chairman of the FIS Finance Commission since 2010.

FIS Membership
The Congress approved the affiliation of two National Ski Associations from Jordan and the Dominican Republic as Associate Members. After further development of its activities the Kosovo Ski Association was elected as a full member with one vote.

Furthermore the Congress approved the following proposals from the National Ski Associations or the Council:

Annual President’s Conference during FIS Calendar Conference
In the years when the FIS Congress does not take place (odd numbered years) a President’s Conference will be convened as part of the FIS Calendar Conference in order to approve the annual accounts and undertake round table discussions.

Olympic Winter Games Programme
The Congress approved that FIS propose to the International Olympic Committee the following new events for inclusion in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games programme (in addition to existing proposed events):

Freestyle aerials mixed team event, Freeski big air, Snowboard cross team event, Snowboard alpine mixed team parallel event, Snowboard parallel slalom, Snowboard mixed team slalom, Telemark parallel sprint.

FIS World Championship Programme
The Congress approved the addition of the following new events to the FIS World Championships:

    Nordic: Ski Jumping Ladies team competition, Nordic Combined Ladies competition, both from 2021
    Alpine: Individual parallel competition from 2021
    Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard: Freestyle Skiing aerials mixed team competition, Snowboard team mixed parallel event

Financial and administrative decisions
As part of the statutory business the Congress approved the Accounts and reports of the internal and external auditors from the 2016-2017 financial period, as well as the Budget for the next two year period 2018-2019.

Chairman of the FIS Finance Commission and Treasurer Sverre Seeberg reported that more than 50 percent of the FIS income is paid out directly to the member National Ski Associations through the special distribution dividend payment including the result of the 2016-2017 period at 15 million CHF and National Ski Association financial support of 10 million CHF in the budget for 2018-2019, totalling 25 million CHF.

Adoption of FIS Safe Sport Policy
The Congress approved the new FIS Safe Snow Policy, approved by the FIS Council in Costa Navarino, to address Safeguarding from Harassment and Abuse. The FIS Safe Snow Policy is also designed to assist the National Ski Associations implement its’ own policies

Management of Governance and Ethical Breaches
The Congress acknowledged the establishment of the system to protect the integrity of sport and the FIS in the case of any breaches of governance and ethical matters as provided for in the FIS Code of Ethics, Anti-Corruption and Betting Rules, new Safe Snow Policy and the FIS Anti-Doping Rules, through an independent specialist organisation. The services will include a Whistleblower Hotline, Investigation Services and an Ethics and Compliance Office. The services from “Global Sports Investigations” will deal with such matters.

Governance:
A number of proposals were referred to FIS Council Working Groups, including Gender Equity and Governance.

FIS SnowKidz Award 2018 Results
The FIS “Bring Children to Snow” international campaign to engage and encourage the younger generations to winter sports rewarded the recipients of the fourth FIS SnowKidz Award. The top three award winners, Finland, Sweden and USA, were decided by the jury from among the eight finalists: The final results are listed below:

1. Finland: Snow Moves!
2. Sweden: Everyone on Snow
3. United States: Minne-Loppet
4. Spain: The Snow Graduation
5. Andorra: Ski School Education Project
6. Japan: Prince SnowKidz
7. Canada: Grade 4/5 snow pass
8. Brazil: Brazilian Rollerski Circuit

FIS news
8 May 2018 14:23

Decisions of FIS Council in Costa Navarino (GRE)

The FIS Council held its spring Meetings during the FIS Congress Week in Costa Navarino (GRE) from 13th - 17th May, with the first meeting on the newly-elected Council on Saturday 19th May.

The tasks of the Council before the Congress itself included going through the agenda for the FIS Congress, reviewing reports from the Organising Committees of the FIS World Championships, Olympic Winter Games and Youth Olympic Games and dealing with proposals from the FIS Technical Committees including World Cup calendars, the appointment of technical officials, adaptation to various rules, approval of technical official courses and financial support for special projects.

In addition, financial affairs, anti-doping matters, adopting the FIS Snow Safe policy (safeguarding against harassment) and management of governance and ethical breaches. Updates from a number of other FIS activities were presented, including marketing and communication projects, the Bring Children to the Snow campaign and business reports from the FIS companies, FIS Marketing AG and FIS Travel Service.

The main decisions of the Council in Costa Navarino include the following:

FIS World Cup calendars 2018/2019 to 2021/2022
A number of modifications to the FIS World Cup Calendars for the 2018/2019 season proposed by the respective Technical Committees were approved, the final versions of which are available on the FIS website. Calendar drafts for future seasons were also reviewed.

FIS World Championships and Junior World Championships
As already announced, the Organisers of the FIS World Championships 2022 and 2023 were elected as follows:

    2022 FIS Ski Flying World Championships: Vikersund (NOR)
    2023 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships: Bakuriani (GEO)
    2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships: Courchevel-Meribel (FRA)
    2023 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships: Planica (SLO)

In addition the Council appointed the following Organisers:

    Marbach (SUI) - FIS Grass Ski World Championships 2019
    Lahti replacing Vuokatti (FIN) - FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships 2019
    Narvik (NOR) - FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships 2020

Technical Committees
A number of adaptions to the technical rules were approved by the Council, details of which have been published under the discipline committee reports. These include:

Cross-Country Skiing
The skiathlon was exchanged with the 15 km and 30 km on the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships and U23 programme. Minor adaptations to the World Cup rules were also implemented.

Ski Jumping
The maximum hill size for the ladies will not be limited and they will officially compete on the large hills as well as the normal hills. In the summer Grand Prix 2018, three competitions will be staged on the large hill and approximately half of the competitions will be staged on the large hill during the upcoming winter season.

Nordic Combined
The Nordic Combined Ladies competition will be officially included on the programme of the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships after the successful test event in Kandersteg 2018. Additionally a mass start competition for the men will be carried out at the World Cup competition in Lillehammer (NOR) this upcoming season.

Alpine Skiing
The number of athletes from any given nation permitted to start in World Cup competitions was reduced by one for men’s competitions when a nation has the maximum number of athletes eligible.

Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard
There will be a new combined ICR rulebook for Freestyle Skiing-Freeski and Snowboard to make it more user-friendly and harmonised between the two disciplines. New ski cross suit specifications tighten the entire uniform will be used from the upcoming season. A revision in the difficulty degree for moguls and ladies’ aerials was introduced. In view of the significant increase in the number of nations qualifying and participating in the World Cup, the Committee is in the process of reducing the quotas per nation for all events, in order to increase the quality of events.

Other Decisions

Anti-Doping
The FIS Doping Panel reported on its decision to sanction cross-country athlete Marina Piller (ITA) for an Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) anti-doping rule violation for two years from 1st January 2017 until 31st December 2018.

Furthermore, the FIS Council acknowledged the work being undertaken to establish regulations as part of the FIS Anti-Doping Rules to reduce quota spots at the FIS World Championships and World Cup competitions, as well as Olympic Winter Games in the event of repeated anti-doping rule violations. This underlines the FIS no-tolerance policy and will serve as a valuable preventative tool against doping.

Adoption of FIS Safe Sport Policy
The Council approved the new FIS Safe Snow Policy to address Safeguarding from Harassment and Abuse. Working with the IOC to develop its Toolkit, the provisions have been incorporated in the FIS Snow Safe Policy, which are also designed to assist the National Ski Associations implement policies for safeguarding athletes from harassment and abuse in sport. Information sessions took place during the FIS Congress with the FIS Medical, Youth & Children, Legal and Safety Committees and the Athletes Commission.

Management of Governance and Ethical Breaches
The Council approved the establishment of the system to protect the integrity of sport and the FIS in the case of any breaches of governance and ethical matters through a partnership to provide independent services, including a Whistleblower Hotline and an Ethics and Compliance Office as well as access to Investigation Services. The system will deal with such matters as provided for in the FIS Code of Ethics, Anti-Corruption and Betting Rules, new Safe Snow Policy and the FIS Anti-Doping Rules.

The first Meeting of the newly-elected FIS Council for the 2018-2020 period by the Congress on Thursday 18th May dealt with the following agenda:

Election of the FIS Vice Presidents, Finance, Doping Panel and Council Working Group Chairs

The Council elected two new Vice Presidents for Scandinavia and North America: Mats Årjes (SWE), who also takes over as Chairman of the Finance Commission and Treasurer, and Patrick Smith (CAN). The Council Working Groups for Governance that will address proposals referred by the FIS Congress will be chaired by Janez Kocijancic (SLO) and Martti Uusaitalo (FIN) for Gender Equity:

    Vice-Presidents: Janez Kocijancic (SLO), Aki Murasato (JPN), Mats Årjes (SWE), Patrick Smith (CAN)
    Chairman of the Finance Commission and Treasurer: Mats Årjes (SWE)
    Chairman of the FIS Doping Panel: Patrick Smith (CAN)
    Chairman FIS Development Programme Working Group: Alfons Hoermann (GER)
    Chairman Council Governance Working Group: Janez Kocijancic (SLO)
    Chairman Council Gender Working Group: Martti Uusaitalo (FIN)

Nomination of Committee Members and new Committees
On the proposal of the National Ski Associations, the Council appointed the members of the FIS Committees for the period 2018 - 2020. The following new Chairs were appointed (the complete list of members will be published on the FIS Website).

Public Relations and Media: Chris Robinson (CAN). Outgoing Chairman Tom Kelly (USA) was appointed an honorary member of the PR and Media Committee and will focus on FIS Sustainability initiatives.

    Speed Skiing: Per Kjellström (SWE)
    Grass Skiing: Cerentin Fausto (ITA)

Furthermore the Council recognised the exceptional merit of retiring Committee Members as Honorary Committee Members:

    Inge Christophersen (GBR), Sub-Committee for Alpine Ladies
    David Howden (NZE), Legal and Safety Committee
    Tom Kelly (USA), PR and Media Committee
    Paul Michaelidis (CYP), Recreational Committee
    Ted Sutton (USA), Alpine Courses
    Melita Tsoutrelis (GRE), PR and Media Committee
    Toni Vogrinec (SLO), Alpine Committee

FIS Calendar Conference 2019 (Technical Committees and FIS Council Meetings)
The FIS Calendar Conference and Council Meeting in 2019 will take place in Cavtat- Dubrovnik (CRO) from 28th May to 1st June 2019.

FIS news
19 May 2018 10:40