Alexander Ospelt elected as FIS President

Fresh from being elected as new FIS President at the 57th FIS Congress in Belgrade (SRB), Alexander Ospelt (LIE) held a press conference where he welcomed questions from the world’s media.

Unity the priority

“There’s been some great dialogue in the build-up to this Congress and it’s been very interesting to talk to representatives from all different countries, but the result [65 votes to 64] shows we’re still divided,” said President Ospelt. “I see this division as a chance, rather than a problem. My first task will be bringing unity and a common ambition to drive FIS forward together.”

When quizzed further on where he plans to start his work as President, Ospelt underlined his intention to listen to the National Ski Associations (NSAs) and to athletes, to get a deeper understanding of the issues they are experiencing. “There’s a lot of work to do, but I want every NSA to feel like now is a new start, that I will take all their concerns seriously and that every NSA must be treated with the same importance as any other.”  

“I’ve requested that the bigger states show solidarity with the smaller states - it’s not in anybody’s best interest to just have athletes from the leading nations competing in the World Cup - and the bigger states are committed to that,” continued Ospelt, a FIS Council member since 2024 and President of the Liechtenstein Ski Association between 2015 and 2023.

Taking the sports to their audiences

“We’re already looking at ways to gain additional stakeholders, investment and sponsors, in order to distribute more income to the NSAs and meet athletes’ requests for increased prize money,” said Ospelt, when quizzed on further areas of action. “For me, it makes most sense to strengthen the disciplines where each of their audiences are. Taking China as an example, it makes most sense to take Freestyle and Snowboard Alpine events there, as the great athletes they have [in those disciplines] can enable us to put on showpiece events - showpieces we can use to broaden the interest across the whole of Asia.”

Ospelt also expressed a keen interest in applying successful concepts across disciplines and competitions. “I’ve been to the Engadina [ski marathon] many times and there are over 12,000 people participating in it, so I always wondered, ‘why not combine it with a World Cup Cross-Country race?’ as we’d already have the audience there and it’d be even more attractive to sponsors.”

“With Alpine, there are lots of discussions going on about how to make it more attractive," said Ospelt, who was asked about the prospects of Freeride becoming an Olympic discipline and how to strengthen Alpine’s media appeal.

"We need to find the right TV format and I think we need to make the athletes more visible, work on promoting them more and turning them into stars - which is what audiences want to see."

“Freeride is really cool too, it’s a totally challenging competition in every way, which is what you want to see, and it’s very fun and very attractive for spectators - especially TV audiences," he said, as the press conference drew to a close.

"But before [fighting for Freeride to get in], the first step is to fight for Snowboard Alpine and Nordic Combined to stay in the Olympics. If we achieve that, we can move on to other disciplines.”   

Elections held for FIS Council

What is more, voting for 18 members of the FIS Council has also been held at the Congress, with the following candidates elected (names listed in order of number of votes received):

• Dr. Michael Huber (AUT)

• Flavio Roda (ITA)

• Magdalena Kast (ARG)

• Deidra Dionne (CAN)

• Tove Moe Dyrhaug (NOR)

• Fabien Saguez (FRA)

• Ken Odashima (JPN)

• Dr. Franz Steinle (GER)

• Dexter Paine (USA)

• Patrick Toussaint (AND)

• Victoria Gosling (GBR)

• Jean-Philippe Rochat (SUI)

• May Peus (ESP)

• Zhao Wang (CHN)

• Nevena Ignjatović (SRB)

• Martti Uusitalo (FIN)

• Tomaž Kunstelj (SLO)

• Jana Palovičová (SVK)

FIS Family continues to grow

Aside from the elections, this year's Congress paved the way for future growth of the FIS Family. Belize have been welcomed as new FIS members - taking the tally to 142 - and Guinea-Bissau have graduated to full membership.

The next edition of the Congress, held next year, will be online, with the 2028 edition to take place in Vilnius (LTU).