FIS Summit, AHU’s inaugural risk management workshop, and key sustainability updates: a preview of the 2024 Autumn Meetings

From 24 to 28 September, representatives from the National Ski Associations (NSAs) working in the various FIS disciplines will gather in Zurich to put the finishing touches on the 2024-25 season plan. 

The Autumn Meetings are generally the chance for stakeholders to discuss – and, potentially, implement – any rule changes and calendar adaptations that might have arisen during the summer. They also lay the groundwork for which topics are to be discussed by the end of the season, next year.  

However, the annual gathering has taken shape into being much more than that: after the success of its first edition in 2023, the FIS Summit is underway to becoming a yearly appointment, taking place each time as a prelude to the Autumn Meetings. The interest in this event has proven to be significant for developing NSAs, which take center stage and have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and opinions with FIS representatives.

The FIS Athlete Health Unit (AHU) will lead its first workshop on risk management specifically applied to Alpine Skiing. The AHU and the Alpine Skiing World Cup Chief Race Directors, co-initiators of the workshop, will engage with a selected group of stakeholder representatives about risk assessment and risk mitigation, according to the motto "joint responsibility – joint solutions." The aim is to initiate a cooperative approach to propose work packages for stakeholders to work on, supported by FIS, NSA experts, and scientific partners. 

For Michael Lasshofer and Gerald Mitterbauer, from the Athlete Health Unit, the first step will be to agree on a common definition of risk management: "Together with the involved stakeholders, modifiable risk factors should be defined, and approaches to mitigate them should be developed. The different positions and professions involved will help understand each other and approach the complexity of risk mitigation comprehensively." 

Sustainability will also be the subject of a special session on Wednesday afternoon, during which Sustainability Director Susanna Sieff will take the NSAs through the revamped methodology adopted by FIS to calculate overall CO2 emissions of the 2023/24 season, as well as present what can be a step change for ever more sustainable events: an online CO2 calculator that FIS will make available free of charge to all NSAs and Local Organizing Committees (LOCs).