Paul Michalides passes away

It is with great sadness that FIS learned of the passing of SES Honorary President Paul Michalides. He was 83 years-old.

Paul served ski sports for 62 years, including 18 years as the SES President. With his passing, skiing lost a great friend, who left remarkable trace in developing and promoting of ski sports worldwide, especially in small ski nations.

In 1961 he was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Ski Club and at the same time Chairman of the Technical Committee of the club until 1983.

Subsequently, he was the President of the Cyprus Ski Club for a number of years (1984-2004) and the President of the Cyprus Ski Federation (1992-2004). From 2006 until today he was the Honorary President of the Club and the Cyprus Ski Federation.

In the international domain, he represented Cyprus for the first time at the FIS in 1969 in Barcelona, where the first contacts were made for holding the FIS Congress in Cyprus, with the result that in 1973 the FIS Congress was held in Famagusta with 500 participants.

Subsequently, he had an active presence in the International Ski Federation with the following positions:

• 1990-2012 Member of the FIS Recreational Committee

• 1997-2013 Member of the FIS Aid and promotion Committee

• From 1998-2016 he served as the Chairman of the SES Ski Nations Committee

The highlight of Michalides' efforts was his decisive contribution to the creation of "SES Nations". which took place in Luxembourg in July 1991. He was secretary of the first eight-member Central Committee. The first competitions of the SES Cup were held in Cyprus in 1990. These competitions were very important, because they gave Cyprus the opportunity to present to the large family of SES member states, but also to the rest of the FIS, the ability of Cypriots to organize international ski competitions.

From 1998 (when the international sports organization was registered in Cyprus, operating under the Cypriot Law) and until 2016, Pavlos Michalides was the President of SES. From 2016 until today he was honorary President.

FIS sends its deepest condolences to the friends and family of Paul Michalides.