Ski Jumping Committee discusses first steps towards strengthened equipment control

The Ski Jumping Committee convened during the FIS Spring Meetings in Vilamoura, Portugal, and, as part of its agenda, laid out the building blocks of a comprehensive plan to restructure equipment control processes in the discipline. 

In an update for Chairman Mika Kojonkoski and for the members of the committee, FIS Race Director for Ski Jumping Sandro Pertile gave the first details of the work that is being conducted to strengthen equipment control.  

This includes the signing of a new member to the equipment control team, former Austrian ski jumper Mathias Hafele, who joins FIS this month of May and will immediately start looking into potential changes and adaptations to be implemented already at this year’s Summer Grand Prix and through the 2025/26 season. Hafele will work with men’s and women’s Ski Jumping as well as with Nordic Combined.

Pertile also announced that long-time Ski Jumping equipment controller Christian Kathol has resigned from his position due to personal reasons. Kathol will keep supporting the transition into a new structure until July 2025. 

Simultaneously to this process that is already being carried out, FIS has kicked off a longer-term project to investigate the potential of deeper and more fundamental changes to how Ski Jumping equipment, in particular the suits, are regulated and controlled. FIS Race Director for Nordic Combined, Lasse Ottesen, is heading the research initiative, which is set to present its first preliminary findings at the FIS Fall Meetings in September, in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Draft calendar is announced

The Ski Jumping Committee also validated the draft calendar for the 2025/26 season, which is now pending final approval from the FIS Council at its next meeting, on 12 June.