FIS Cross-Country Committee autumn meetings

Finally after two years, the whole FIS family could again meet up in Zürich for the annual autumn conference. This was the first time since 2019 all could meet in person, and it was not difficult to see that this was something everyone really had missed.

Below you can find the most important topics that were presented to the Cross-Country Committee.

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

WORLD CUP PRIZE MONEY

In June, the FIS Council had approved a general 10% prize money increase for athletes in all FIS World Cup competitions. This included both men and woman and would begin from the 22/23 season.

The World Cup Sub-Committee discussed proposals on how the additional prize money will be distributed (stated in World Cup Rules under art. 3.5.3 - prize money individual competitions). The Sub-Committee agreed that the extra prize money will be collected throughout the season and distributed to the top 20 athletes of the Overall FIS Cross-Country World Cup standing. This will result in a total of CHF 211'750.00 to be split among the rankings according to the chart stated in the World Cup rules.

Also the Tour de Ski Overall prize money will rise to a total of CHF 326'000.00 per gender to be split between the top 20 rankings.

In addition, the prize money of the U23 winner at the end of the season will rise to CHF 6'000, honoring the most successful youngster of the season.

FUTURE OF THE TEAM-SPRINT

The Team-Sprint has been on the program for many years. And to keep in touch with the development in the sport, several proposals were on the table on how to make suitable changes for the future.

TEAM SPRINT
The Sub-Committee discussed the adjustments of the Team Sprint format. After a discussion, Team Sprint will see the following changes as of the upcoming season:

• Individual qualification
  The Sprint Semifinal will be changed to an individual qualification. Each athlete of the team will ski the competition course individually and the times of both athletes will be added, resulting in the final ranking of the qualification.

• The top-15 teams will continue to the finals.

The Sub-Committee rejected the proposal to introduce an elimination element in the Team Sprint and confirmed the exchange with contact to be used.

ATHLETES START QUOTA TEAM EVENTS

At the FIS Spring meeting it was decided that in team competitions, each nation has right to enter two teams. Mixed teams (different nations) are allowed but only for those National Ski Associations, which do not have enough athletes to form their own teams.

If a nation already has their own team in a team event (relay, mixed relay) it is not allowed to make another team with another NSA. No more than 2 NSAs (nations) can form 1 team.

CALENDAR

The World Cup calendar for 22/23 was set and will be uploaded into the documents section, once approved by the FIS Council.

In order to address highly rising energy costs and express social responsibilities, the Cross-Country Committee approved the proposal from the German Ski Federation to give exception from the ICR rule 3112.9 and allowed to use shorter loop than 5km for the interval start competitions. This exception is valid for all organizers of the upcoming FIS Cross-Country World Cup.

The long-term calendar versions for 23/24 were discussed with an option of event series in North America as it will be a non-title event season.

FIS Development program

Representatives from the FIS development program presented their projects in the Sub-Committee meetings. The department had been established in the FIS system since 1996 and has a total amount of 41 FIS members. The program is set to support smaller countries so they can meet and work together to develop the ski sport.

As of this year, PARA ski is also included in the department and has already started to be implemented in various coaches and development programs, that are supported by FIS.