The 46th International Ski Congress kicked-off Sunday night with the official welcome reception at the Hotel Westin Grand in Cape Town (RSA). More than 1000 participants have now arrived securely in South Africa, the country that is a full member of the International Ski Federation. They will participate in the several dozens of official meetings of the FIS Council, Technical Committees and Working Groups (see here for the latest schedule) along with countless unofficial gatherings that traditionally take place during the Congress Week – all with the focus on developing skiing around the World.

The first official meeting of the FIS Council also takes place on Monday. The Council will continue to meet until Wednesday, reviewing the items on the program of the FIS Congress – General Assembly - on Friday, 30th May, as well as considering various proposals from the Technical Committees and various other topics. One of most important items on the Council's Agenda includes the confirmation of the FIS World Cup schedules for the 2008/2009 season. The Technical Committees are also meeting from Monday till Wednesday.

On Thursday, 29th May, the candidates of the FIS World Championships 2012/2013 will deliver their final presentations to the 17 members of the FIS Council that will elect the different host cities of the 2013 Alpine, Nordic, Freestyle, Snowboard and 2012 Ski Flying World Championships.

Premiere: Live streaming from the World Championships election

For the first time in FIS's history, the announcement of the elected organizers for the 2012/2013 FIS World Championships will be available through live web streaming (live TV on the Internet) on several sites including the FIS website www.fis-ski.com. The direct feed, available as of ca. 19:00 CET on Thursday 29th May, will show the FIS president announcing the results of the FIS Council's election of the organisers as well as the celebrations by the winners . After all the announcements, interviews with the elected hosts of the FIS World Championships 2012/2013 will be relayed.

For the 2013 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships are applying Cortina d'Ampezzo (ITA), Schladming (AUT), St. Moritz (SUI) and Vail/Beaver Creek (USA). Five candidates are applying to be the successor in 2013 of Oslo, that will hold the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 2011: Falun (SWE), Lahti (FIN), Oberstdorf (GER), Val di Fiemme (ITA) and Zakopane (POL). For the 2013 FIS Freestyle World Championships, the Norwegian town Voss is the only candidate and for the 2012 FIS Ski Flying World Ski Championships Harrachov (CZE) and Vikersund (NOR) is applying for being the host city.

26.05.2008
FIS newsflash