FIS Cross-Country Committee autumn meetings 2023

The FIS technical autumn meetings took place this week in Zürich (SUI) and concluded with the Cross-Country Committee meeting on 29th September. The Committee is dedicated to discuss and decide on proposals from NSA's as well as proposals from working groups from the Sub-Committees. Below you can find the most important matters that were elaborated in the Cross-Country Committee.

All proposals are still subject to the approval of the FIS Council.

Calendar 2023/24

As the 2023/24 season does not feature any title events, the Tour de Ski as well as the long awaited visit to North America's venues, will be some of the featured highlights. There were no major adjustments to the previousely published calendar but some format adaptions.

Find the calendar 2023/24 here with the following format specifications that were discussed at the Committee:

• Ruka
  For the first time, the venue of the season opener will host a Mass start race. The Sub-Committee of World Cup discussed the suitable course track in terms of safety and profile and voted unanimously to use the 2.5km course track.

• Toblach
  The opening stage of the Tour de Ski has planned to elevate the scheduled Pursuit course to showcase the highlight of the region with the inclusion of the view onto the Drei Zinnen mountain range at Lago di Landro. The last adjustments to guarantee the use of this scenic long course section - besides the need for enough natural snow fall - are ongoing.

• Davos
  Davos Nordic will be held for the 50th time and follows this years approach for a "Tour de Climbs" with including a two valley course along Dischma and Flüela valley. Also this course set is dependent on enough natural snow fall. The Committee therefore agreed on a Plan-B version with a 15km Interval C, in case the originally scheduled 20km Pursuit C can not take place.

Long-term calendars

FIS Race Director together with a working group established the calendar by nation and venue for the season 2024/25. The calendar will be approved and published in Spring 2024. The calendar for the Olympic season 2026 was established with dates and regions by period for which National Ski Federations can apply for.

YOG and JWSC & U23 WSC dates

For the junior levels, this years title events will take place in Gangwon (KOR) with the YOG, from 27th January to 1st February 2024. The Junior World Championship and U23 World Championship will take place in Planica (SLO) from 5th to 11th February 2024.

World Cup rules 2023/24

The following major Rule adaptions were approved:

• Fluor
  Due to the implementation of the Fluor ban, new rule and adjustments to the wording of existing rules were included in the ICR. The ICR document will be published once approved by the FIS Council.

• Order Mixed Relay
  This season in Goms, the order of starting atheltes was voted to be M/W/M/W

The Sub-Committe for Rules and Control dedicated a moment in memory to Hermod Bjørkestøl who was an honarary member and recently passed. Read more about his legacy in Cross Country skiing here.

World Cup prize money

The FIS Council approved a continuous prize money support for the 2023/24 season. This resulted in the need of a new split of the daily prize money pot as well as the Overall World Cup prize money. One major change with the additional support is that in Team events, prize money will be paid to top-10 teams compared to formerly top-6. The Committee was presented and approved prize money split (stated in World Cup Rules under art. 3.5.3). Prize money from the Tour de Ski remains unchanged.

Sub-Committee for Rollerskiing

Martins Niklass, FIS Rollerski Coordinator reported from this seasons World Cup. 
For the upcoming season, the calendar schedules three World Cup stops with each 4 compeititons, starting 17th July 2024 in Madonna (LAT).

Click here for the updated FIS Rollerski World Cup schedule 2024. (uploaded as soon as confirmed)

Information Fluor ban 2023

Several updates on the upcoming implementation of the fluor ban were presented in each Sub-Committee. FIS Cross-Country will inform more thorouhgly on official channels as soon as all stakeholders are set to have the latest information and are ready for the season. FIS set up a fluor information platform where guidelines and reference documents are uploaded, valid for all FIS disciplines.