International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) president Johan Eliasch described the federation’s renewed eligibility policy as “the cornerstone of our commitment to safeguarding women’s sport” during Wednesday’s Council meeting in Zurich. While FIS avoided answering questions from AIN, the global body also pushed forward discussions on increasing prize money.
Eliasch, the Swedish official who recently lost his bid for the International Olympic Committee presidency to current IOC head Kirsty Coventry, reaffirmed the federation’s focus on athlete welfare.
“Protecting the health and wellbeing of our athletes is our absolute top priority,” Eliasch stressed. “The elite sports ecosystem is highly complex and involves many stakeholders, but if there is one organisation capable of leading the way on safety, it is FIS. This is our duty.”.
The ongoing and controversy-ridden battle to set out clear guidelines for gender registration in sporting competition remains as intense as ever since the boxing tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games put the focus on two women fighters who won gold medals despite not having been deemed eligible to compete in the female category by their international federation months in advance. The heavily politicised debate turned ugly quickly in the French capital and permeated well beyond what the IOC had desired when it stripped the International Boxing Association of its official recognition in favour of World Boxing, well after the fact.
With sex testing at the core of the imbroglio, the now official federation finally announced it would be in favour of mandatory sex testing last May, again sparking fierce backlash from those opposed to such methods, while other international sporting bodies followed suit, aligning themselves with what many call ‘a scientific-based’ approach on such determinations. Others, meanwhile, appear less enthusiastic about promoting such an emotionally multi-layered and questionable protocol, which the IOC did away with back in the day because it considered it invasive and detrimental to the athlete’s overall well-being.
The last organisation to jump onboard the former bandwagon is FIS, who brought alleged athlete safety to the forefront of its agenda in Zurich, addressing measures to what it deems further enhances protection across all disciplines of snow sports. In its official statement, the Council emphasised the importance of establishing clear and consistent safety guidelines for all national ski associations, set to serve as a common framework for the entire skiing and snowboarding community, including “homologation of training slopes to ensure safe and appropriate conditions, regulation of safety equipment standards and safety protocols to protect athletes at every level” and increased education and awareness around safety responsibilities throughout all its disciplines, which include alpine and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing.
Eliasch, who addressed this topic frequently during his campaign for the IOC presidency but was mostly lukewarm on the subject despite leaning towards the so-called ‘scientific’ approach, now underlined that the renewed policy “is the cornerstone of our commitment to protect women’s sport.” Back in March, he had advocated for ‘no grey areas’, leaning on ‘biological facts’ to argue that exposure to male puberty confers physical advantages which, in his view, justified restricting the participation of transgender women in female categories. At the same time, the Swede also championed inclusion, suggesting the possibility of separate categories based on biological identity. Under Coventry’s watchful eye, the IOC has since devoted a working group of experts to analyse the situation and offer possible solutions.
