The International Ski Federation continues to introduce fundamental reforms. First, the union equalized male and female distances, and is going to deprive advanced countries of one of their main advantages – lubrication.

Service team competitions, whose work often determines the results of top athletes, may now come to naught. All because of the desire to equalize the chances of the national teams, which are influenced, among other things, by such technical components.

But the decision of the federation may have another motive.

“It is critical for Switzerland, France, Italy”

FIS Flight Director Pierre Mignerey issued a new statement. According to him, many countries participating in the World Cup are striving to optimize their costs for the maintenance of ski teams and are looking for ways to save money:

– This is critical for countries such as Switzerland, France, Italy. If we do not cut costs and invest in youth, then there will be fewer and fewer nations that want to compete for the highest places, the manager said in an interview with VG.

His position seems to be objective. If you look at the podiums of the last World Championships or the Olympics in China, then of the listed countries in the prizes we will see only Federico Pellegrino from Italy. At the same time, it is important to understand that the sports career of the 32-year-old sprinter is coming to an end. And behind him, as in the case of the Swiss Dario Cologna, no one is visible yet.

Federico Pellegrino / Photo: © Patrick Smith / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

These European countries really struggle to compete with Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden. World relay champion in 2008, and now the newly minted director of the Nordic disciplines of Switzerland, Guri Knotten, literally from the threshold proposed a solution that allows her wards to compete for medals:

— We could standardize a lot more in terms of equipment. Countries with fewer resources should spend the majority of their total budget on lubricants and equipment. It goes beyond the capacity they have to carry out the work of recruiting and developing athletes. Perhaps you should test common lubrication schemes for everyone? Knotten suggested.

“I don’t think it will work”

In the Scandinavian and Nordic countries, this initiative, as expected, received a negative response. The service crews of Norway, Finland and Sweden have been accumulating their experience for decades to beat the competition, and now activists from second-tier skiing countries want to take away the well-deserved advantage of the top teams:

“Sharing everything is somewhat against our competitive nature. And I don’t think that’s the key. On the other hand, it is a myth that we have many secrets in the lubricant itself. We just work well with the application technology of the product and we have experience. Therefore, we are showing good results, said Stein Olav Snesrud, head of the service team of the Norwegian national team.

Stein Olav Snesrud / Photo: © Trond Tandberg / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

However, the Vikings are in no hurry to enter into an open confrontation and are trying to encourage FIS to dialogue:

– I don’t think it is. [унификация смазки] works, and it’s hard to do it honestly. But we are happy to take part in the discussion [реформы]Snesrud said.

Last time, when it was about equalizing the men’s and women’s distances, most of the athletes were also against it. But as a result, the opposite decision was made. It is quite possible that the same situation will develop now.

At the same time, you need to understand that the leaders will still have an advantage, because the quality of the ski run is also determined by the brand and type of skis themselves. And this is where Klebo, Niskanen and other top athletes have a big advantage over their competitors:

– We talked about a single FIS service team for all athletes, about an equal system. But in any case, there will always be differences. Runners have different skis, Minerei noted.

Opaque targets

To be honest, this idea looks very vague so far. If the FIS wants to direct funds for the development of children’s and junior sports, then the countries that are advanced in terms of cross-country skiing will again succeed in this. The same Norwegians, for whom this sport is akin to religion, will use free funds to build new stadiums and tracks. As a result, the alignment of forces in the skiing world will not change.

Looking at the situation from a different angle, one can suspect the federation of wanting to solve the problem with fluoride-containing ointments in this way, which are officially banned, but it is almost impossible to identify violators. The ideal apparatus for correct testing has not yet been invented. Therefore, it seems like a simpler solution to simply unify all accelerators and lubricants. The method, to put it mildly, is not democratic and contradicts the principle of sports. However, in recent years, sports organizations are guided by it less and less.