World Championship silver medalist Kikkan Randall was recently selected as a representative to the FIS Athlete Commission and joined the 12-member group for the FIS Calendar Conference in Croatia during late-May. The FIS recently took steps to reinvigorate the group, bringing all of the athletes together for a very productive meeting. The Athlete Commission has also started a Web site, www.democraski.com, where elite athletes from around the world can exchange ideas. Take a minute to register on the site today. Here's Kikkan's report from Croatia.

Hello teammies!

First off, let me say how hard it was to say goodbye to all of you last week with such a great camp going in Bend.  I really enjoyed getting to see everyone, the conditions were fantastic and I love the energy we’ve already got going into the new season!

When I was sitting on my flight from LAX to Frankfurt, in the middle seat, squeezed between two not-so-fit people, I was wondering to myself what in the heck I was doing, leaving such a great camp to fly all the way over to Europe for two days of business meetings.  Thankfully all my apprehension was relieved when I arrived in Dubrovnik.

My experience at the FIS meetings was very positive.  Croatia an amazing place to visit, FIS was thrilled to have athletes involved, and the enthusiasm from the Athletes Commission was something to really get excited about.

Croatia, the place, is pretty sweet.  The temperature was nice and warm, even when the sun went down, which was a real treat for this Alaskan.  The water was incredible, so clear you could see down more than 50 ft.   Lots of quaint little restaurants down by the water in the little town we were staying at, and a really cool old town that was a 30 min boat ride (w/ dolphins) away.  I’ll let the pictures say the rest...

As for the meetings, the real reason I was there, I was impressed with the whole process.  On my first day, I sat in on the ladies cross-country committee and the Athlete Commission meeting.  

The newly created (actually reinstated) Athlete Commission includes representatives from all the other disciplines and does a pretty good job of covering a broad spectrum of countries.  I was amazed at the energy and enthusiasm from all the athletes to really make a difference.  The biggest things that came out of our 5hr meeting are the following:

Athlete Reps Communication and Transparency – I think I told you all about www.democraski.com.  This will be a great tool for the Athlete Reps, and athletes in general, to be able to communicate on a constant basis, sharing ideas and bringing forth issues.  If you guys haven’t signed up, please do!  There are already some great discussions going!

Drug testing – most of the discussion centered around a need for a better web interface for updating whereabouts information.  This doesn’t really apply to us because we use the USADA system and not the ADAMS system.  I brought up my topic about wanting more testing and a representative from FIS explained that they have put more of an emphasis and more funding into out-of-competition testing, and that is why we’ve seen less in-competition testing.  The discussion moved on to a different topic after that, so I didn’t really get any ground on that.

Funding for severely injured athletes/program for athletes in transition after sport – This came especially from the alpine and freestyle sides, a desire to see FIS implement systems to financially help athletes that are severely injured in competition and maybe don’t have good insurance or support systems.  Also, the athletes would like to see FIS give more education and support to athletes when they finish their athletic careers and are transitioning on from sport.

Minimum requirements for WC Organizers  -  This was a hot topic amongst all disciplines.  Basically, the athletes from each sport need to put together a list of all things we would like to see standard at World Cup events and FIS will help us make these mandatory requirements.  We were able to participate in a panel discussion with some World Cup organizers and they are interested in our feedback.  I’ve started a discussion on Democraski about this, please check it out.

On the second day, Sami Jauhojarvi and I were able to sit in the Cross Country Committee meeting.  While we do not yet have any voting rights, we were asked for our feedback on several issues.  Here is a brief summary:

Multi-stage "Tour" World Championships – The XC Committee voted in favor of the idea to contest a “tour” world championships in a non-championships year.  This would be an 8-9 stage race over 10 days and the overall winners would be crowned "World Champions."

Bringing XC to the web – FIS would like to boost its marketing efforts by creating a new website.  Something to the effect of, “crosscountryiscool.com”.  This website would utilize modern technologies to bring the fans closer to the action, closer to a younger audience, etc.  The site will need support from the athletes and national federations for content.  More info to follow.

Mini-Tour in Kuusamo – FIS was proposing that an additional race be added to the comp schedule in Kuusamo and that the 3 races would be contested as a mini-tour.  Sami and I brought up a few concerns on behalf of the athletes, and after a little discussion, this idea actually ended up not being supported.  So, Kuusamo will remain as it has been.
Remove B Final from sprint format – It was basically decided that FIS would no longer require a B final in sprint competitions.  The reasoning behind this is to give more attention to the A Final, and to encourage racers to go for it more in the semi-finals.  This means we probably won’t see B Finals on the world cup anymore, but it will still be an option for NorAm or Continental Cup races.
Tour rules – A racer won’t have to finish all races to get full points during a tour event.
World Cup Finals – Will change to only top 50 world cup overall ranked racers, plus U23 champions and Continental Cup leaders.
Ski exchange in 30/50km – There was a lot of discussion on what specific rules to apply, but basically, all that was decided at this point was that this idea was supported and specifics would be decided in the future.  What are your thoughts?


Okay, this email is getting a bit long winded now.  In conclusion, Croatia was a great experience because having an athlete rep will allow us athletes and coaches, a better understanding of what the issues are, and how to give feedback and influence how we would like to see things.  

Please share any ideas, thoughts, concerns with me, and/or with the rest of the world-wide ski community through Democraski.com.  I look forward to working for you guys in this arena!

Happy training for the rest of your camp.  I’ll see you all in Whistler in September!!

Cheers,
Kikkan :)