FIS Council Decisions Dubrovnik 2019
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INTERNATIONAL SKI FEDERATION Blochstrasse 2 3653 Oberhofen/Thunersee Switzerland Tel +41 33 244 61 61 Fax +41 33 244 61 71 Dubrovnik, Croatia 2nd June 2019 FOR MORE INFORMATION Jenny Wiedeke FIS Communications Manager Mobile: + 41 79 449 53 99 E-Mail: [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FIS MEDIA INFO Decisions of the FIS Council at the Spring Meeting 2019 in Catvat-Dubrovnik (CRO) The FIS Council held its Spring Meeting in Catvat-Dubrovnik (CRO) on Sunday 2nd 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 Council in Dubrovnik are as follows: FIS World Cup calendars 2019/2020 The FIS World Cup Calendars for the upcoming 2019/2020 season were approved with generally minor modifications proposed by the Technical Committees. In the case of Alpine Skiing the changes were more significant following the decision of the FIS Council in February 2019 to promote the alpine combined and maintain it on the programme of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Cortina 2021, along with the introduction of the individual parallel event. The ladies’ calendar sees the inclusion of four alpine combined competitions with three for the men. The calendars for 2019/2020 will be on the FIS website from Monday 3rd June, as well as future calendar drafts for Cross-Country and Alpine Skiing until 2021/22. Of note in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup calendar for the upcoming season is a trip to the Far East for the men’s tour where they will compete in the first ever competitions in China, which are also the first official Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Test Event in any sport. Directly afterwards they return to Japan for the first time since three seasons. The calendars in the three Nordic disciplines feature FIS World Cup highlights. Notably the première of the ‘Ski Tour 2020’ in February, which will send the World Cup across Sweden and Norway beginning in Ostersund and concluding in Trondheim. The Cross Country Tour de Ski is set to kick off in Lenzerheide (SUI) and conclude in the traditional location of Val di Fiemme (ITA). Ski Jumping will stage the only FIS World Championship event of the season with the FIS Ski Flying World Championships in Planica (SLO) from 20 th to 22 nd March. The Ladies calendar includes the second edition of Raw Air in Norway from 3rd to 12 th March. Seefeld (AUT) welcomes the Nordic Combined Triple again after the Austrian resort staged the successful FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2019. The Freeski and Snowboard World Cups will also see approximately half of the events in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events staged together as part of the harmonisation process between Snowboard and Freestyle Ski. FIS World Championships and Junior World Championships The Council confirmed the candidates for the FIS World Championships in 2024 and 2025 as well as the procedure for the election next May at the FIS Congress in Thailand. - Crans Montana (SUI), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) Saalbach (AUT) are bidding to host the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, while Trondheim (NOR) is the sole candidate to host the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Krasnoyarsk (RUS) has applied for the FIS Freestyle, Snowboard & Freeski World Championships. Harrachov (CZE) is the provisional candidate to host the FIS Ski Flying World Championship 2024 with the necessary modifications to the hill still to be confirmed later this year. - The competition programmes for the FIS World Championships 2021 in the Alpine Events in Cortina (ITA), Nordic Events in Oberstdorf (GER) and Freestyle Ski and Snowboard Events in Zhangjiakou/Genting (CHN) were approved. Olympic Winter Games Reports were received from Beijing 2022 with a detailed planning report for the Test Events in all six FIS disciplines set to take place beginning next season. The Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 also provided its last status update before the event in January 2020. The Organisers of the Olympic Winter Games in 2026 will be elected on 24 th June 2019 during the IOC Session in Lausanne, with two traditional Organisers in all the FIS disciplines: Italy with Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo and Sweden with Stockholm/Åre as the two candidates. Technical Committees Various updates to the International Competition Rules (ICR) were made. A more detailed summary for each discipline will be published in the next edition of the FIS Newsflash. Key decisions include the following: FIS Staffing Peter Gerdol, FIS Continental Cup Coordinator since 2014, will take over the role of Atle Skaardal as FIS Alpine Ladies’ Chief Race Director. Skaardal will shift his role within FIS and become the FIS Alpine Technical Expert. Ski Jumping Race Director Walter Hofer will retire after the 2019-20 season. His successor will be Sandro Pertile from Val di Fiemme (ITA), who has deep experience Organising FIS events at all levels. Change of Licence Registration Several athletes have changed their National Association licence registration in accordance with birth, family and/or residence requirements. Cross-Country Skiing - Adaptations were made to the Tour de Ski formats including the final stage, the Alpe Cermis climb in Val di Fiemme (ITA), which will now be a mass start. - The ‘Winner of the Day’ and overall standing in a stage competition has a more in-depth definition. Ski Jumping - Prize money for the 2020/2021 season will be confirmed for all disciplines at the FIS Council Meeting in the autumn, however the Organisers have unanimously agreed to fast-track an increase for the upcoming season with the top 20 athletes in Ladies’ World Cup individual competitions which was raised to 25,000 CHF. Nordic Combined - A mixed team event will be introduced at the Junior World Ski Championships beginning at this season’s event in Oberwiesenthal (GER). - The first calendar for the Ladies’ World Cup for 2020/2021 was presented. Alpine Skiing A WCSL (World Cup Starting List) for parallel will be established for the 2020/2021 season, for the entire season 2019/2020 a PWSL (Parallel World Seeding List) will be used. All parallel competitions will have a two run qualification to determine the top 16 that will go on for the finals and earn World Cup points, in addition, the athletes placed 17th-30th will also be awarded with world cup points after the qualification runs. - A reduction in the start field for men’s competitions was approved. The qualification requirement requires an athlete to be ranked within the first 150 on the FIS points list or ranked in the top 30 of the WCSL in any event, from the previous level of maximum 80 points. This would result in a reduction of approximately 5-10 racers per competition. Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski - Rules for the mixed team aerials competition were defined. - Harmonisation of the international competition rules (ICR) between Freestyle Skiing, Freeski and Snowboarding has been carried out, in addition to continuing to adapt the calendar to maximize the number of common events. Other disciplines and FIS Committees - Updates to the Rules for Masters Skiing, Speed Skiing, Telemark, Equipment and Advertising Matters were agreed. Governance of FIS Following the inaugural Presidents Conference on Saturday, which unanimously approved the FIS Accounts for 2018, the Council reviewed the accounts for the first period of 2019 and financial affairs of FIS. Updates were provided by the two working groups in Gender Equity and Governance, with the Council approving the Gender Equity Working Group’s proposal to increase the number of FIS Council Members by two to 18, plus President, plus two members of the FIS Athletes Commission. A minimum of three will be reserved for the other gender and the FIS Athletes Commission must represent both genders and two disciplines. Anti-Doping Update The Council acknowledged the current status of cases and actions by FIS and received updates on both National and International level doping cases. It welcomed the newly established Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) implementation of a full-time permanent Anti- Doping Division (ADD) to act as an independent first instance for international cases and the FIS decision to delegate doping case adjudication to the CAS-ADD.. FIS National Associations The provisional membership application from Vanuatu as associate member was accepted, subject to the approval of the FIS Congress in 2020. The newly established Ski and Snowboard India was acknowledged as the governing body in the country. Committee Members On the proposal of the National Ski Associations, exchanges to a number of Committee Members were made on request of the National Ski Associations. The members of the Athletes’ Commission 2019 - 2021 were confirmed following the elections held at the FIS World Championships 2019. Hannah Kearney, USA (Freestyle Skiing), and Martti Jylhä, FIN (Cross Country) were elected as Co-Chairs by their fellow FIS Athlete Commission members. Former chair, Konstantin Schad (Snowboard) will remain as one of the two Athletes’ Commission representative on the FIS Council until the Congress 2020 at which the election of the FIS Council will take place. Hannah Kearney is the other FIS Council representative. FIS Congress The Council appointed Vilamoura (POR) to host the 53 rd International Ski Congress in 2022. FIS World Snow Day The ninth edition of FIS World Snow Day will take place on 19 th January 2020 after more than a half a million participants took part in the eighth edition. * * * About FIS FIS is the governing body for international skiing and snowboarding, founded in 1924 during the first Olympic Games in Chamonix, France.