After the next reforms, which were adopted by the International Ski Federation (FIS) at the end of May, the organization’s reputation has become even worse. Many experts and great skiers no longer hesitate to criticize the decisions of President Johan Eliash, who turns cross-country skiing into a farce.

Even Ski King Petter Nortug admitted that the current path leads nowhere. Without Russia, there is no point in these competitions, and it is simply impossible to replace our skiers.

“World Championship in Danger”

At the FIS Congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia, FIS President Johan Eliash drew an epochal line that divided the history of cross-country skiing into “before” and “after”.

First of all, we are talking about the abolition of the almost century-old tradition of men’s 10 km relay races at the world championships: starting from the 2025 World Cup, they will run 4 × 7.5 km. Equally painful for the skiing community was the decision to equalize the men’s and women’s skiathlon up to a distance of 20 km, which led to the abolition of the traditional 30-kilometer races for men.

All these manipulations with distances are presented as a desire to make the competition more spectacular, but experts are extremely skeptical about such motivation. Vegard Ulvang, ex-head of the FIS Ski Council, has already criticized his former colleagues, and Petter Northug has also criticized him.

Petter Northug. Photo: © Pool / Pool / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The two-time winner of the Big Crystal Globe, the star of world ski racing is sounding the alarm and is very worried about the future of his sport:

The World Championships are in danger and the FIS is taking dubious action to drop the traditional men’s 4x10k relay to give more countries a chance. We are abandoning the formats that have gone down in the history of our sport. When you start to move away from your roots, it’s scary, – the two-time Olympic champion is quoted by Ski Nordique.

Russia is the only rival

The 37-year-old Norwegian is nostalgic for the times when he competed for medals with Cologna of Switzerland, Helner of Sweden, Harvey of Canada, Manifika of France, Di Centa of Italy, Bauer of the Czech Republic and, of course, our Alexander Legkov. In those years, athletes from almost a dozen countries competed for medals. Now the results of the World Cup look like the championship of Norway.

“There were a lot more competitions in my time. The World Cup was interesting and several countries had athletes capable of winning. I hope that officials will make changes to bring this fight back, says Nortug.

Perhaps the main change that can solve the problem at least partially is the admission of Russians. However, while FIS is moving in the opposite direction.

“Now it doesn’t matter what the FIS decides. If we do not succeed in restoring interest in cross-country skiing in Central Europe, it will be very difficult in the future. We see that the Norwegians take all the prizes, at least in the men’s category, killing interest in our sport, Nortug emphasizes.

New way

Interestingly, Petter himself has long understood that the FIS product is losing its appeal to the audience and the skiers themselves. Therefore, the legendary athlete is investing in the development of his own Janteloppet race. This week it became known that it will be the final of the prestigious Ski Classics series:

We want to make a grand finale. Real show. The race will be the toughest race on the series calendar,” says Ski Classics General Manager David Nilsson.

Petter Northug / Photo: © Richard Heathcote / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Petter has been organizing his race since 2019. Over time, the popularity of starts only grows. Janteloppet is becoming more and more integrated into professional skiing, while developing in parallel with the FIS strategy. Probably partly because of this, Northug is so actively attacking the federation. He is not only a former champion, but also a businessman!

In general, the trend of the last year is to promote competitions not between countries, but between teams, which is what Nortug is doing. In this, he is supported by Johannes Klebo himself, who quarreled with the Norwegian team. Sooner or later, the FIS will not have a chance to ignore the idea of ​​private teams, and then, perhaps, it will be easier for Russian athletes to return to international competitions.