Switching the flag you race under could soon get a lot tougher for skiers.

ARE, Sweden — Switching the flag you race under could soon get a lot tougher for skiers.
    Racers unable to make the cut in their national teams or unhappy with the way things are done at home have long used the strategy to become top dog in a less advanced ski country.
    Under current rules, athletes must provide proof of citizenship with a valid passport to compete for that country. When athletes switch nationalities, they also lose their FIS points — which determine rankings and start positions — unless granted an exception.
    Hoping to crack down on the trend, FIS is considering making it mandatory for athletes to have lived in their new country at least two years to compete under that nationality.
    ''We know that many athletes that cannot qualify, particularly before the World Championships or the Olympic Games, try to switch nations or buy, if you want, passports or citizenship from new nations,'' FIS President Gian Franco Kasper said Friday on the eve of the alpine skiing World Championships.
    Last month, Austrian-born Killian Albrecht began skiing for Bulgaria. Another Austrian, seven-time World Cup winner Josef Strobl, took Slovenian citizenship in 2004. Three-time World Cup champion Marc Girardelli raced for Austria until 1976, then defected to Luxembourg because of coaching disagreements.
    Austrian Elfi Eder, the 1996 World Cup slalom champion and 1994 Olympic slalom silver medalist, left in 1997 to race for the Caribbean island of Grenada. Switzerland's Urs Imboden and Christophe Roux now compete for Moldova.
    AUSTRIAN EXPECTATIONS: The Austrian ''Wunderteam'' isn't expecting to duplicate the 14 medals it won at last year's Torino Olympics.
    ''That was exceptional. Maybe it happens once every 100 years,'' said Hans Pum, Austria's alpine director. ''We have to be realistic. Our goal is always six to eight medals; 14 was more than a dream.''
    At the last worlds in Bormio two years ago, Austria won 11 medals, including silver in the nations team event.
    SIMONCELLI OUT: Italian giant slalom specialist Davide Simoncelli has decided to skip the worlds following a training crash, and will undergo surgery instead.
    Simoncelli tore a ligament in his right knee and had a slight concussion after a fall Monday in Val di Fassa, Italy. After a new round of medical exams on Thursday, the Italian squad's medical team ruled Simoncelli out of the championships.
    He will undergo surgery on his knee next week in Milan.
    Simoncelli has won two World Cup giant slaloms in his career and finished runner-up three times.

— The Associated Press