Safe Sport Day: a milestone for safety and inclusiveness in snow sports
Aug 08, 2025·Inside FIS
Not too long ago, the words “safe” and “sport” would rarely be found side by side. It took the effort of sports’ key stakeholders to highlight the importance of keeping the sports environment safe and, more importantly, to commit to providing the conditions for that.
Today, Safe Sport Day - August 8 - is the ultimate symbol of how institutions like FIS have come together to achieve that goal. It is as good an occasion as any to raise awareness of athlete safeguarding and wellbeing.
The initiatives at FIS
The FIS Safeguarding policy states that all athletes, staff and volunteers have the right to participate in sport in a safe and inclusive environment, free from all forms of discrimination, abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation.
The policy recognises these rights are paramount for children under the age of 18 and observes the international legal framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It sets out policies and provides guidance for developing best practice in caring for athletes and participants with FIS committed to helping NSAs develop their own athlete protection and safeguarding policies. The policy is currently being revisited.
In order to foster a safe and fair competition environment especially for young athletes, FIS collaborated with safeguarding consultancy En Garde in early 2024 to produce the FIS Safe Event Toolkit.
Under FIS safeguarding policy, major event hosts are required to implement certain provisions to ensure the wellbeing of all participants including a safeguarding event plan, the appointment of a welfare officer and an integrity hotline.
En Garde founder Mathilde Grenet developed the toolkit to offer step-by-step instructions for competition hosts to ensure the obligations are correctly put in place.
It was piloted in early 2025 at the FIS Nordic Junior World Championships U23 Cross-Country World Championships that ran from February 3-9 in Schilpario, Italy, and the Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in Tarvisio, Italy, from February 27 to March 6.
“The bottom line is we are developing these guidelines to make sure that FIS events are safe and that there is a route to report concerns, that people are aware that there is a set-up in place in case something happens. To protect athletes but also to protect anyone involved in the event,” says Grenet.
Participation and technology
FIS introduced an Integrity Hotline in 2018, in partnership with Global Sports Investigations, where ethical and governance breaches can be confidentially reported.
This includes discrimination and harassment and a failure to provide a safe space, as well as non-compliance with FIS rules, policies and protocol.
FIS has also joined forces with Signify Group, its artificial intelligence Threat Matrix service, and sports integrity and security experts Quest to protect over 1,000 athletes and officials from online abuse and threat.
Threat Matrix, which operates in 39 languages and uses open-source data, is now live and activated across X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok and covers athletes and officials across six Ski and Snowboard disciplines throughout the entire season.
We invite all our members, stakeholders, supporters and participants to join us and take the Safe Sport Pledge today – ensuring skiing and snowboard communities are spaces where everyone can grow, perform and feel safe.