FIS MEDIA INFO: Main Decisions of the FIS Council at its Spring Meeting in Portoroz (SLO)

Oberhofen, May 29th, 2007 – At its Spring Meeting held in Portoroz (SLO) on Monday 28th May, the FIS Council has made the following important decisions:

Decisions directly related to the sport organization

• Confirmation of details of FIS World Championships as follows:
  • Dates and program for the 2009 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Val d'Isère as from 3rd to 15th February. For program, see attached PDF.
  • Dates and program for the 2009 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Liberec (CZE) as from 18th Feb to 1st March. For program, see attached PDF.
  • Dates of the 2009 FIS Snowboard World Championships in Gangwon Province (KOR) as from 14th to 25th January.
  • Dates of the 2009 FIS Freestyle World Championships in Inawashiro (JPN) as from 2nd to 8th March, as previously confirmed.
  • Host of the FIS Freestyle Junior World Ski Championships 2008 as Airolo (SUI). Sites for the other disciplines have already been confirmed for 2008: Sczcyrk (POL) for the Nordic events, Jaca/Formigal (SPA) for the Alpine events and Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) for Snowboard.
  • Host of the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships 2010 as Hinterzarten (GER).
  • Extension of the deadline for applications as Candidates for the 2013 FIS Snowboard World Championships until 1st October 2007.
• Approval of the 2007/2008 FIS World Cup calendars (see links below) and a number of proposals by the FIS Technical Committees, in particular the following:

Alpine Skiing
Change of the starting order for the downhill, super-G and super combined (1st run, i.e. downhill or super-G) events as follows: The best fifteen present competitors (quota adjusted) of the corresponding event WCSL are drawn between starting numbers 16 to 22 (for WCSL 1 to 7) and 8 to 15 (for WCSL 8 to 15). The remaining athletes up to WCSL 30 are drawn within the start numbers 1 to 7 and 23 to 30.

Cross-Country
Staging of the World Cup Final as a three-day competition series including a prologue/sprint and two distance races. The Final weekend will award 200 overall World Cup points and total prize money of CHF 120'000 (per gender).

Ski Jumping
Increased importance of the qualification as all jumpers, except the 10 best present in the current WCJ standing, must participate in the qualification round.

Nordic Combined
Formalization of the ‘sprint compact' format in the International Competition Rules after successful delivery at the World Cup level in 2007.

Freestyle Skiing
Recommendation to use ‘back protectors' at all Freestyle events.

Establishment of a so-called ‘Snow Cross Cooperation' coordination group consisting of FIS experts including the discipline managers for Freestyle (Joe Fitzgerald), Snowboard (Marcel Looze) and Alpine (Janez Flere) to collaborate on questions that arise across the disciplines especially related to ski cross and snowboard cross.

Snowboard
Setting the age limit for participation in international slopestyle competitions at 13 (the riders must have reached their 13th birthday before the end of the calendar year in question).

NOTE: More details on discipline-specific decisions will follow shortly.

• Approval of designation of Sella Nevea (ITA), located near Tarvisio, as an official “FIS Training Center.” The resort is constructing a new course that will be reserved exclusively for training in all Alpine Skiing events with a dedicated lift, top-to-bottom snow-making, safety material, timing and technical support. The facility will be available to all National Ski Associations at a special daily price. There will also be training opportunities for Cross-Country Skiing and Ski Jumping.
• Appointment of remaining key jury members and technical officials for the 2008 and 2009 FIS World Championships and FIS Junior World Championships.
• Increase of the daily reimbursement amount for Technical Delegates and Judges from CHF 80 to CHF 100 per travel day and day of assignment for all levels of competition in all FIS disciplines.

Financial and administrative decisions

• Approval of new regulations for change of license, subject to approval by FIS Congress in 2008. Any new applications will be considered on the basis of the new rules, including the requirement that the athlete must have had his/her principal legal and effective place of residence in the new country for a minimum of two (2) years immediately prior to the date of the request to change registration to the new country/National Ski Association.
• Establishment of a working group together with the ski industry, chaired by FIS President Gian Franco Kasper, to address several issues including some raised by the ski industry related to the practical questions such as the logistics and costs of ski racing, as well as ways to appeal to a younger generation and promotion of the sport.
• Approval of requests from FIS Solidarity for financial support of special projects or activities that are not part of the regular day-to-day work of a National Ski Association in Albania, Brazil, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia.
• Approval of the budget for the FIS Aid & Promotion Program for the period 1st May 2007 – 30th April 2008 of CHF 1,485,000 that is financed by the income generated from the registration fees of candidates for the FIS World Championships

For discipline-specific World Cup 2007/2008 calendars please follow these links:

Audi FIS Alpine World Cup Ladies
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/0708ladies.pdf

Audi FIS Alpine World Cup Men
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/0708men.pdf

Viessmann FIS World Cup Cross-Country
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/cc0708.pdf

e.on ruhrgas FIS World Cup Ski Jumping
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/jp0708.pdf

Warsteiner FIS World Cup Nordic Combined
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/nc0708.pdf  

Freestyle FIS World Cup
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/wcfs0708.pdf  

NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup
http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/wcsb0708.pdf

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