Skiing's Governing Body Adopts New Sex Eligibility Policy
The FIS is currently working to implement a new athlete eligibility policy for FIS competitions.
The new policy was brought about at a recent meeting in Zurich as part of an initiative to enhance protection across all disciplines of snow sports managed by the FIS. These disciplines currently include Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, and freestyle skiing and snowboarding.
During this meeting, the FIS Council emphasized the need to establish clear and consistent safety guidelines for all National Ski Associations. These guidelines include frameworks from things like homologation of training slopes to ensure safe conditions, regulation of safety equipment standards and safety protocols, and increased education around safety throughout the sport.
“This is our number one priority. There is nothing that comes even close to it. The ecosystem around elite sports is a complex one, dependent on many factors and stakeholders, but if there is one organization that can lead the way when it comes to putting safety first, this is FIS. It is our duty to do so,” said Johan Eliasch, FIS President.
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The new policy presented to the FIS council during this meeting states that only SRY-negative competitors may compete in women’s competitions.
The policy is based on the presence or absence of this SRY gene, which is a gene found on the human Y chromosome that provides instructions for making a protein involved in male-typical sex development. The FIS Council has implemented the policy to “protect women’s sport” by “relying on science.”
The policy was approved by the Council and FIS will move forward by engaging with the National Ski Associations and other stakeholders to implement it.
The FIS also resumed conversations about how to increase prize money following the approval of an up to 20% increase in prize money for all FIS World Cup events. 10% of this additional prize money would be guaranteed by FIS and the other 10% would be on a voluntary basis from each Local Organizing Committee. A decision on the matter is expected a the next FIS Council meeting on October 21, 2025.
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