FIS – Page 3 – FasterSkier.com

FIS Cross-Country Committee Sets Schedule and Extends Maternity Protection Status

FasterSkierOctober 5, 2020

Last week, the International Ski Federation (FIS) concluded its fall Cross-Country Committee meetings. The most pressing issues are COVID related and concern the calendaring and running of safe events. Many variables remain in play, like how each hosting country experiences a predicted uptick in COVID cases this winter. Within this context, the Cross-Country Committee made several recommendations that have yet to be approved by the FIS Council. The FIS Council is scheduled to meet...

News Racing World Cup

Kuusamo, Finland World Cup Goes Full Steam Ahead – with no Fans

FasterSkierSeptember 24, 2020

The local organizing club for the first cross-country Word Cup of the season, Kuusamon Erä-Veikot, announced on it’s website According to an official statement, the decision was made after consulting with the Finnish Ski Association and the International Ski Federation (FIS). However, organizers make clear that it still awaits “final confirmation” from FIS.

News Racing World Cup

Covid-19 Trends and Early Season World Cups: An Update

Jason AlbertSeptember 9, 2020

With the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic, two months out from our article titled “Covid-19 Trends and Early Season World Cups“, we thought it an appropriate time to review Covid-19 trends in Europe. If the International Ski Federation chooses not to modify Period 1 and Period II on the World Cup, Finland, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy will host already calendared events. In early June, when we first examined Covid-19 in those countries, the overall...

General News

Opening up European Cycling and What we Can Learn

Jason AlbertAugust 24, 2020

This won’t be easy. Seeing a “normal” World Cup season go down will take considerable coordination, stakeholder buy-in to behavioral modifications aimed at community wellness not necessarily individual needs, and broader control over the spread of Covid-19. Here in the U.S., the major sports, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MSL, and MLB, have opened their respective seasons. The models for each league differ, the NBA maintains a relatively strict bubble, whereas the MLB chose a more lax...

General News

FS News Roundup: More Covid-19 Related News

FasterSkierAugust 18, 2020

This news round has an eye towards the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) move to mitigate COVID spread on the World Cup as it eyes a new racing season. Before we delve into that, we wanted to raise some awareness to a most excellent non-ski related podcast. In short, it’s called TWIV. Longform, it’s “This Week In Virology: the podcast about viruses – the kind that make you sick.” No, it’s not The Devon Kershaw Show....

News Resources Waxing

An Interview with Matthias Scherge: Helping FIS Jump the Fluoro-Free Hurdle

Jason AlbertAugust 3, 2020

Matthias Scherge is the director of the Fraunhofer Microtribology Center in Germany. As one of the major European research institutes specializing in industrial lubricants, Scherge and his colleagues have a hand in the ski wax game. Currently, Scherge is assisting the International Ski Federation (FIS) to implement its fluoro-free policy. Specifically, they are determining the thresholds at which a positive or a negative test will be triggered when testing a ski base for fluoros. Scherge...

News Resources Waxing

Are Fluorinated Ski Waxes Really the non plus ultra?

FasterSkierJuly 27, 2020

Last November, the International Ski Federation announced in a press release the banning of fluorinated waxes starting with the 2020-2021 race season. FIS states, “The use of fluorinated ski waxes, which have been shown to have a negative environmental and health impact were banned for all FIS disciplines from the 2020/2021 season.” Behind the scenes, the transition to fluoro free racing has begun both in Europe where the majority of World Cups are held, and...

General News

FIS sets Covid-19 Guidelines for World Cup Events

Jason AlbertJune 22, 2020

A phrase we probably have all become familiar with: Risk assessment and Covid-19. The International Ski Federation (FIS) published guidelines last week to assist local organizing committees of FIS World Cups to mitigate community spread at races. This comes on the heels of FIS joining an initiative called #Sport4Recovery. According to FIS, the new entity aims to organize stakeholders and “highlight the importance of sport for mental and physical health recovery as well as...

General News Racing

FS News Roundup: Schumacher and Halvorsen win Awards; FIS Concludes Spring Meetings

FasterSkierMay 22, 2020

Last week U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced the recipients of two awards. Gus Schumacher of Anchorage, Alaska, and newly minted U.S. B-Team member, won the Beck International Trophy recognizing the top athlete in international competition. He shared the honor with alpine skier Mikela Shiffrin. Schumacher comes off a year during which he won the 10 k classic at World Juniors and anchored the men’s 4 x 5 k relay to their second consecutive Word Junior’s...

General News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

FIS Points, Part II: What’s a Point Worth

Gavin KentchMay 21, 2020

This article has been updated to clarify the relationship between the junior races now known as FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships and its precursor, the World Junior Nordic Championships and the European Junior Nordic Championships. There are, to briefly traffic in the obvious, 60 seconds in a minute. Sixty seconds in a minute; 60 minutes in an hour; 3,600 seconds in an hour. Skiers measure their lives in these increments; we track total yearly training hours,...

News Racing

FIS Points, Part I: Inside the Points List

Gavin KentchMay 11, 2020

First in a two-part series. Coming next week: The meaning of a single FIS point for national team selection. The recent news that David Norris was not named to the national team by the narrowest of margins, following the application of objective selection criteria tied to an athlete’s position on an overall FIS points world ranking list, has inspired FasterSkier to take a closer look at where these numbers come from. The goal of this...

Racing World Cup

Norway With the Win, Finland With Its First Relay Podium on Home Turf

Rachel PerkinsMarch 1, 2020

Sports fans talk a lot about home field advantage. Which team will play at home at Game 7 of the World Series? Or in the playoffs before the Stanley Cup? Home turf and the swells of a crowd whose numbers are skewed toward the home team has an undeniable effect. Yes, the Norwegian team of Tiril Udnes Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Therese Johaug, and Heidi Weng won yet another 4×5-kilometer relay with a time of...

Doping Multimedia News Podcasts The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show (Audio Short): WADA, Russia, and FIS

FasterSkierDecember 20, 2019

To the point: thoughts and opinions on WADA’s decision to ban Russia from major international competitions for four years.

General News

FIS Moves to Ban Fluorinated Ski Waxes for the 2020/2021 Season

FasterSkierNovember 23, 2019

News today from the International Ski Federation’s Autumn Meeting in Constance, Germany will disrupt modern race-ski prep methodology. The Committee for Competition Equipment which is tasked with defining the technical specifications of all equipment used across the spectrum of FIS sanctioned snow sports: Cross-country skiing, nordic combined, ski jumping, alpine, snowboard, freestyle, and freeski, is calling for a ban on the use of all fluorinated ski waxes for the 2020/2021 season. “The use of fluorinated...

Multimedia Nordic Nation Podcasts

Nordic Nation: Vegard Ulvang and the Will to Lead

Jason AlbertNovember 1, 2019

Vegard Ulvang at fifty six years old remains an icon in Norway. With Olympic and Championship medals, a World Cup Overall title in 1990, he’s in the lineage of Norwegian skiing royalty. Away from the tracks, Ulvang began and then sold a profitable clothing company. He fills his time making documentaries and television features. He is also, as you’ll hear at the top of the interview, committed to living a life of exploration, calculated risk,...

Doping General News

News Roundup for 8/12/19

Jason AlbertAugust 12, 2019

New IBU Secretary General Named On August 6th, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced Sweden’s Niklas Carlsson as its new Secretary General. At 44-years-old, Carlsson comes to the position with considerable experience in the world of alpine ski racing. According to the IBU press release, Carlsson served as the Secretary-General of the Swedish Ski Federation from 2011-2014. He has also worked for the International Ski Federation (FIS), and served on the Boards of two Swedish...

General News Racing World Cup

Cross Country Ski FIS World Cup on track for March 2020 Season Finale (Press Release)

FasterSkierJuly 24, 2019

Press Release Cross Country Ski FIS World Cup on track for March 2020 Season Finale The Season Finale to be held at the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park will welcome the world’s best skiers from around the world to compete for 3 days in March 2020. CANMORE, ALBERTA July, 22 2019 – The Alberta World Cup Society (AWCS) just completed a successful pre-World Cup site visit by FIS (Fédération Internationale de Ski), accompanied by FIS Marketing AG...

Doping General News

FIS and CAS Anti-Doping Division Sign Agreement

Jason AlbertJune 18, 2019

FIS recently signed an agreement with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that ceded its adjudication power in doping cases to the CAS Anti-Doping Division or ADD. The CAS ADD is touted as a body able to make independent decisions when reviewing suspected doping violations. Prior to the agreement in early May, the most basic process for adjudicating a FIS initiated doping violation progressed within the organization. Once evidence for...

General News

Changes for Next Season’s World Cup on the Agenda (Updated)

FasterSkierJune 3, 2019

Here is a link to U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover’s blog in which he discusses the changes discussed and adopted at the most recent FIS meetings. The International Ski Federation (FIS) held a FIS Calendar Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia last week. The FIS Cross-Country Committee provided the following changes and proposals which were voted upon by the FIS Council on June 2. Of note, it appears the final race of next season’s...

General News World Cup

World Cup Prize Money and the Distribution of Wealth

Jason AlbertApril 25, 2019

If you’ve read the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) website in the last few weeks and deviated from exploring the cross-country sub-site, U.S. alpine star Mikaela Shiffrin has been prominently featured. Her season was record-breaking. With 17 wins, she set a FIS World Cup record for alpine victories in a single season. With the fattening of her win total, was the commensurate growth of her bank account. She became the first World Cup...

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