FIS Technical Committees meet in Zurich to Discuss the 2018/19 World Cup Season

Last week the FIS technical committees met in Zürich to discuss logistics of the upcoming 2018/19 World Cup season, as well as a few changes being made to improve the Alpine World Cup.

Aside from reviewing operations for the season, such as travel plans, equipment specifications, course setters, and the like, head coaches of each nation, World Cup organizers, and FIS staff were focused on tackling more anticipated subjects – the start field reduction and harmonization of the parallel rule.

Collectively, the World Cup is focused on growth and acknowledges certain steps must be taken in order to improve TV figures and the overall World Cup product. Hence the reduction of the start field. Last spring, top nations agreed to cut their fields to seven athletes per nation in order to further highlight the stars of the sport on TV.

Chairman Niklas Carlsson also made an unofficial proposal to reduce the quota to the Top 30 nations. At this time no final decision has been made. A more concrete proposal will be developed throughout the winter and brought to the table next spring in Dubrovnik.

In the spring, the FIS Council accepted to include the individual parallel as a discipline starting at the World Ski Championships in Cortina 2021 onward. For this reason, deciding how to harmonize the different formats to establish parallel on the World Cup Tour took precedence last week in Zurich. A working group has been created to assess different options and create a proposal to be implemented on all FIS levels next season, winter 2019/20.

On October 27, giant slalom athletes will kick off the 2018/19 winter season in Soelden as they work their way towards World Championships in Are, Sweden and World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra.

Release courtesy of FIS.