FIS Votes to Add ‘And Snowboard’ To Its Name, But Not By A Big Enough Majority To Do It
An ‘Extraordinary Congress’ of the International Ski Federation (FIS), held online on 8th October, took a vote on changing the organisation’s name to either the “International Ski and Snowboard Federation” or the “International Snowsports Federation” whilst retaining the abbreviation FIS regardless of any name change.
Of the two a majority preferred “International Ski and Snowboard Federation” but when it came to confirming the new name and adding ‘And Snowboard’ to the organisation’s name the vote of 66 in favour and 49 against was just not enough for the change to be approved as a two-thirds majority vote was required.
New FIS president and former Head sporting goods boss and billionaire Johan Eliasch said although the name change hadn’t been voted through the fact that a majority supported it spoke volumes.
Mr Eliasch was successful in changing the FIS’s structure to allow presidents to serve for a maximum of three four-year terms after the organisation had had only two presidents in the 69 years prior to Mr Eliasch’s election earlier this year. He also sought to get more women involved in running the currently male-dominated organisation.
Other congress decisions sought to make FIS operations and decision-making more transparent with Mr Eliasch focussing on a “much-improved commercial future” for the FIS with increased media coverage of events meaning increased prize money and the aim of generating more funding to support athlete development around the world.
