The two women in charge of sports decisions in Trondheim 2025

Twenty years ago, Kristin Mürer Stemland was a Cross-Country skier competing in the FIS World Cup. Every single time she would finish among the top 3, her post-race schedule would inevitably include a short interview with FIS: a couple of brief questions, always addressed by the same person, Media Coordinator Sandra Spitz.  

Still today, as they reminisce about those times, Kristin and Sandra are part of the world of snow sports, except now with much different responsibilities: one as the Chief of Sport and Chief Operating Officer of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim 2025 and the other as FIS Sport and Event Director. 

Many things have changed in 20 years – for them, personally, and especially for the world, which has evolved to the point of featuring two women as the ultimate decision-makers for sports-related matters at the premier world stage. 

We’ve sat down with the women responsible for sport at Trondheim 2025 to reflect on their journey and on the role of women in snow sports through the years: 

Could you have imagined, 20 years ago, to be in this position? How common was it, back then, to have women in this kind of decision-making role at big events? 

Sandra Spitz: I don’t think so. At that time, there were very few women involved in managerial roles. Also, teams were structured by default with men in leading positions: you would have women competing as athletes and maybe one physiotherapist here or there. But I have to say: I have never felt uncomfortable within the Cross-Country environment.  

Kristin Mürer Stemland: It was very similar for me as an athlete. Everyone, from coaches and trainers to service team, were mostly men. It was just how things still were: with men all over. 

What has changed the most since then? Why do we have more women now? 

Sandra: In the sport and event business, it is very hard to reconcile work and having a family, particularly if you talk about a competition with a calendar as intense as that of the FIS World Cup. It all comes down to building the conditions for women to be there. Instead, in the face of a shortage of financial resources, by definition, stakeholders have relied on employing one single person available to travel the whole time: usually, a man. I don’t even think it was intentional or calculated. 

So, what is changing is the perception that leading a family is the role of a woman and a woman only? 

Sandra: It is changing. Slowly. Of course we have many more supportive measures in place: FIS, for example, provides support for athletes and team members who are mothers and wish to bring their young children with them to competitions. They are baby steps but heading in the right direction: on the service side of teams, for example, we see considerable improvement. It is not a 50/50 split yet – nowhere close to it – but the resources are starting to allow for change. 

Kristin: As a Local Organizing Committee (LOC), in Trondheim we have something like a 40/60 split in the workforce: more men than women, but not by a wide margin. This is the result of choices that we made during the recruitment process and how the team has developed over the years. It has led to my being in charge of Sport, with an Assistant Chief of Sport who’s also a woman, Linda (Svendsrud). It’s nice, although there is room for more. 

Sandra: There is room for more, and I also want to underline another aspect in which we can long for improvement: it’s fantastic to see a former athlete like Kristin growing into that position. I hope she can be a role model to show younger athletes options of what to do after their competitive career. I think it’s very important to keep women engaged in the sport. Ideally, if they so wish, while having a family. 

Kristin: Thank you. It was a process. After my career as an athlete, it took me 10 or 12 years to decide to come back to the sport. Then came these World Championships organized in my hometown. And I really mean it: my house is 300 meters away from a part of the Cross-Country 50km course. I lost count of the times I have gone out running in these woods, and Granåsen has always been my home place for skiing. I saw all that and I thought: “OK, this is a one-time opportunity to give something back to the sport that has been a part of my life for so long.” And then it all started. 

How do you think athletes, teams, and the overall ecosystem have been reacting to having more women occupying these decision-making roles? 

Kristin: I have the feeling that the Nordic family is accepting women very nicely and is pleased to have this diverse perspective, as well as the different skills that they bring on board. I think they see the benefit of it.   

Sandra: I agree and, frankly, I think part of it is related to the fact that the origins of Nordic sports lie in Scandinavia, where gender equality is in a much better position than most places in the world. But I also think that all other nations have taken over this attitude, which makes the Nordic family really open to the presence of women. 

We know that teams have been searching for women and that it is not always an easy process: we’re still at a stage of motivating young women, young athletes, to take a position in a national association after they finish their career. The situation obviously still shows a bit of a handicap for women, but we need to be clear about our intentions and show confidence in these young athletes. 

Do you agree that snow sports are in quite a particular position when it comes to the attention received by men’s and women’s competitions – that the situation is more even than in most sports? 

Sandra: It definitely is. Data from TV ratings in Cross-Country, for example, constantly tell us that the audience is very close to a 50/50 split between men and women – it really only depends of the circumstances: if Norway or Sweden are stronger in one gender or the other at a certain moment. But the point is: you create heroes from the women’s side. 

Kristin: Take Norway, for example: Therese (Johaug) is just as big a name as Johannes (Klaebo). In most sports, when you have a man and woman with comparable feats, the attention given to the men’s side tends to be much higher.  

Sandra: I think this is pretty remarkable for snow sports in general, and for the Nordic disciplines in particular. Same for the fact that we’ve had equal prize money in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup for over 25 years now. This is true for all FIS disciplines except for Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined, two disciplines in which women’s competitions started just a few years ago, and where we haven’t gotten to the point of ensuring equal prize money into the LOCs’ contractual obligations. 

FIS is working to change that into having no exceptions at all. An important step was to make sure that here at the World Championships, where FIS participates directly in the prize money pool, all disciplines pay the exact same amount to men and women alike. 

Kristin: This, in fact, is something that we really wanted to achieve with Trondheim 2025, and we’re very proud that, together with FIS, we got to that situation of equality. There was very little to discuss, really: we all think it’s a great sign for the years to come.