Recap of the autumn 2022 Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski Committee meetings
Oct 05, 2022·Snowboard Park & Pipe
From 28-30 September 2022 the annual autumn FIS Committee Meetings took place in Zurich (SUI), and for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic the meetings took place in person and face to face. And, for the first time in history, the meetings took place under the direction of an organisation now know as the International Ski & Snowboard Federation,
Included in this series of forums were meetings of the subcommittees for Freestyle, Alpine Ski Cross, Park & Pipe/Freeski, Snowboard Alpine, and Snowboard Cross, with the busy week capped off on Friday by the large Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski “Supercommittee" Meeting.
Beside traditional reports from various advisory groups, staff and chairs of sub committees, the 2022/23 World Cup calendars have been presented along with different presentations from organisers of upcoming major events including 2023, 2025 and 2027 World Championships, 2026 Olympic Winter Games, Youth Olympic Games and Junior World Ski and Snowboard World Championships.
While no major changes in terms of rules and regulations were put forward there were, however, some notable developments in all subcommittee meetings, and we’ve collected the highlights here.
2021/22 World Cup calendars
General
An important initiative since the 2022 FIS Congress was held this past spring was the publication of the current draft of the FIS Strategic Plan for the next five-year period, which now awaits feedback from National Ski and Snowboard Associations. The plan highlights the athlete welfare an aims to increase the value of all FIS events and their contribution to all stakeholders, while recognising that increasing value is directly linked to increasing events’ reliable visibility on appropriate viewing platforms.
The Plan recognises the need to continually enhance the audience appeal of snowboard, freestyle and freeski events and grow engagement with the audiences. This applies to various aspects of the events including logical (easy to follow) formats, informative graphics and the integrity of results.
A key element underpinning the FIS strategic plan is the centralisation of the management of the sport’s media and marketing rights, which is generally perceived to be a crucial step in realising the full potential presented by the snowboard, freestyle and freeski events.
A highly important moment during the off-season was the release by the IOC of its analysis of linear and digital media activity for Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, which builds on the results achieved during Pyeongchang 2018.
IOC Sport Director Kit McConnell enclosed highly satisfying results from Beijing 2022, stating that snowboard, freestyle and freeski events lead the way amongst all FIS disciplines while placing third overall in terms of TV/media/social media exposure in 12 out of 13 different indicators, while doubling the numbers achieved in 2018.
The new established FIS Marketing & Media department will now try to translate the phenomenal results achieved in Beijing 2022 into bringing some long-term partners to support the snowboard, freestyle and freeski World Cup tours.
The FIS has announced that a full fluor wax ban implementation will be postponed to the 2023/2024 season in order to allow additional time for the further refinement of the fluor testing device and to define the procedures to protect the integrity of FIS competitions.
Extensive testing of the fluor detection device, together with experts from National Federations and the International Biathlon Union (IBU), led to the conclusion that more time was needed to check new fluor-free waxes to provide accurate results. The testing of these new products are underway.
FIS will increase the systematic collection and testing of samples during the upcoming season 2022-23. The close cooperation with the National Federations and the IBU will continue to help to further refine the detection system and define the practical implementation processes and regulations which will ensure the fair implementation of a full ban of all fluor waxes for the season 2023-2024.
The ban is intended to reduce risks to human health and the environment coming from chemicals found in fluorocarbon products used in the preparation of skis
Freestyle:
Micheal Kennedy led the gathering of the Freestyle Subcommittee for the firs time as the chair, replacing Walt Hiltner, who led this committee since its inception in 2016 following the restructure of Freestyle and Snowboard.
To honour the lifetime contribution to freestyle disciplines, the committee unanimously approved a proposal to assign Walt Hiltner, along with long-time FIS Freestyle Race Director and Coordinator Joe Fitzgerald, as Honorary Members of the Freestyle Committee.
The Committee also expressed sincere gratitude to Hannah Kearney for her work as athlete representative as she finishes up next year and noted the importance of having an athlete representative that understands the discipline and the sport and can truly connect with the athlete cohort as being critical to the effectiveness of this role.
Whilst the council postponed the request for subcommittees to adopt new, more streamlined structures, the Freestyle Subcommittee pushed ahead with discussions to name a Freestyle Executive to manage the day-to-day business between meetings, along with a new advisory group structure which will serve strategic and operational needs.
The addition of Dual Moguls to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games programme and beyond is certain to satisfy the growing appetite for exciting, head-to-head competition. This has been a project in the making for a long time, and the IOC’s decision reflects a broad appeal of dual moguls and the economic case for its inclusion, while reflecting well on the success of the Freestyle events in Beijing in terms of excellent courses, top-tier competitions, huge global interest by way of TV ratings and social media engagement.
While the freestyle disciplines are generally in very good shape, nonetheless the Freestyle Subcommittee discussed the need to continue to evolve and grow in line with the growth of our athletes and our audiences.
There was also a lengthy discussion about remote judging that evolved as a response to challenges of COVID. There is an appetite to move to more remote judging - or at least a hybrid model. The opportunity is to improve accuracy and performance via use of technology along with real time judge training/education. However, there are challenges to work through including protocols, integrity and the messaging to our existing judging community.
Ski Cross:
Ski Cross Subcommittee chair Tommy Eliasson Winter (SWE) presided over the 2022 meetings, noting that SX is at a crossroads as the event separates itself from Freestyle while negotiating some remaining uncertainty over where the event will end up fitting under the FIS umbrella.
Despite this, the community remains united in its aims and goals moving forward, with progress on some key initiatives underway - including the construction of a new set of international competition rules which are to be presented to the Council in spring 2023 for approval.
Set to be implemented already for the 2022/23 season is a new FIS points system which more closely aligns with Alpine, wherein all qualification ranks will get points according to the time difference per rank to the fastest run time of the qualification runs. The calculation format for these points will be the same as used by Alpine.
Despite the unfortunate pre-season cancellation of events scheduled for Alleghe (ITA) and Megeve (FRA) due to unforeseen logistical circumstances the 2022/23 ski cross World Cup calendar remains one to look forward to, with 15 races slated to take place at nine resorts around Europe and North America, including at new venues Les Deux Alpes (FRA), Oberwiesenthal (GER) and Craigleith (CAN).
And, as noted by ski cross Race Director Klaus Waldner, the ski cross community is keenly looking forward to the upcoming World Championships in Bakuriani (GEO), where the 2020/21 test event proved it to be an excellent ski cross venue and where history will be made when the first-ever ski cross mixed-team World Championships medals will be awarded.
Park & Pipe:
Chair Jeremy Forster (USA) once again oversaw proceedings of the Park & Pipe Subcommittee, where discussions on harnessing the momentum gained from the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, streamlining and maximising the impact of World Cup competitions, and increased investment in top-tier judging were some of the key topics of the week.
The new FIS Media & Marketing department has already expressed its belief in Park & Pipe as a FIS discipline primed for greater growth throughout the current Olympic cycle and beyond, and will be working closely with key stakeholders to harness this potential.
The Park & Pipe Subcommittee supported in concept adding Rail Jam as a new event within Park & Pipe. Additional work needs to be done as the event evolves, including development of rules, structure for FIS points and other technical details that the Subcommittee will review, with Martijn Oostdijk acknowledged for his spearheading work on the project thus far.
Investment in support of judging is encouraging to see from FIS leadership and appreciate their support. Coordination between Park & Pipe and Moguls & Aerials (Freestyle) where practical will take place.
A World Cup quotas rule proposal for elite spots was approved by the Park & Pipe Sub-Committee for implementation in the 2023-24 season. It should be acknowledged that support of the World Cup Tour and recognition of those WC standings is a worthwhile effort, along with the inclusion of the World Snowboard Points List rankings for other areas of the WC quota system. While of course the WC quotas will be implemented as approved it should be noted that unfortunately six nations (CHN, JPN, AUS, NZ, NOR, SPA) were unable to vote and as a result potentially this topic will be revisited in the future when all nations can participate.
FIS Park & Pipe contest director Roberto Moresi presented some comments regarding the slopestyle venue for the Milano/Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. With slopestyle establishing itself as one of the marquee snowsport competitions of the Games, the Olympic slopestyle course has become one of the Games’ marquee venues, and these courses have been extremely well-received by the athletes and fans in the past several Games. Continuing that tradition is of key importance moving forward.
Regarding the 2022/23 World Cup calendar, the Park & Pipe Subcommittee is looking forward to successfully carrying out full World Cup calendars for halfpipe, slopestyle and big air - for both snowboard and freeski - for the first time since the 2019/20 season.
The 2022/23 FIS park & pipe World Cup calendar currently includes five big air, five halfpipe and four slopestyle competitions for snowboard, and six slopestyle, five halfpipe and three big air competitions for freeski.
Finally, the Subcommittee recognised the need to maintain the quality and services provided on the park & pipe World Cup up to this point, but find ways to lower costs and work in a more environmentally-friendly manner. Better planning, calculations, course designs and workflows should go a long way to improve production and final outcomes.
Snowboard Alpine:
A certain restructuring of the FIS in terms of its staff, departments and its general direction and strategy has been ongoing for more than a year now. The expectation certainly is that within this period until the spring meeting of 2023 there will be a clear view visible in which direction the FIS and therefore also snowboard, freestyle and freeski will turn or march on over the current decade.
Another big discussion involved an addition of a second event into the Olympic Winter Games programme and the inclusion of a snowboard alpine event into the Youth Olympic Winter Games.
The 2022/23 World Cup calendar consists of 14 individual competitions in 11 resorts, as well as four mixed team World Cup events. The season opener will see the premiere of the Parallel Snowboard World Cup in Livigno (ITA), on the slopes dedicated for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. The solid calendar shows how alpine snowboarding is still growing in terms of interest inside many different nations.
For snowboard alpine as well the natural season peak will be the World Championships in Bakuriani (GEO) where five more medal races will take place. Besides the two individual Parallel- Giant and Slalom competitions of each gender, the Mixed Team event will be conducted for the first time as part of the World Championships programme.
The Snowboard Alpine Subcommittee also discussed an idea to introduce banked slalom as a new overlapping discipline, creating an opportunity for athletes from snowboard alpine, snowboard cross and park & pipe to compete on the same course. It’s a result of collaboration with new para snowboarding race director Alex Andreis after the transfer of governance of three Para Snowsports to FIS earlier this years.
Snowboard Cross:
Stefan Knirsch held the SBX Sobcommittee meeting as a new chair, replacing Peter Krogoll, with the Committee expressing deep gratitude to Krogoll for his outstanding work over the last years within the combined Cross Sub-Committee and the SBX Sub-Committee. Peter will continue to distribute his expertise in the newly-formed position as the SBX and Snowboard Alpine Coordinator for the Subcommittee.
The Sub-Committee has appointed Sacha Giger to be the new Vice-Chair, which now awaits an approval from FIS Council.
With ski cross aiming to leave the umbrella of the Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski Committee there is a new working group being set up together with Ski Cross in order to identify and discuss possibilities for synergies even while ski cross works to establish its new identity in FIS. The group consists of the Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen, the FIS Event Manager and Race Directors and is based on a recognition of shared venues at joint major events. The aim is to establish and maintain as many as possible joint rules, following the same ideas and wording, but going their own directions wherever it’s needed.
The calendar for the upcoming season is solid, especially given the global circumstances, but it is still not the number of races the SBX community is hoping for as it remains difficult to find new destinations and organisers.
The reasons are diverse, but certainly high cost of building the courses as well as increasing energy prices have a negative impact and may lead to which may lead to additional cancellations in 2022/23.
One of our the future approaches of SBX Committee is to raise the sustainability of snowboard cross competitions to reduce the economic and ecological impact. The Committee is happy to deliver great events and is looking forward to a closer cooperation with the new FIS Marketing and Media department to make Snowboard Cross even more attractive for spectators and sponsors.
