Top Story Replay - Alpine Racers Call for Union in Battle Against FIS

This story was originally published on Dec. 8, 2011.

Ligety, Albrecht Talk Union

Alpine skier Ted Ligety is making headlines on and off the mountain.

On Tuesday in Beaver Creek, Colorado, the three-time World Cup giant slalom champion and 2006 Olympic gold medalist won his second giant slalom of the season by the large margin of 0.69 seconds. It's his 10th career victory in the discipline, moving him past Bode Miller as the all-time winningest U.S. racer in GS.

In a recent post on his website, meanwhile, Ligety vehemently criticized rule changes and decisions made by the International Ski Federation, FIS.

At FIS Council meetings last month, the governing body upheld its decision to drastically modify the turning radii and size of skis – most significantly in giant slalom – despite a petition against the changes signed by 41 of the world’s top 50 skiers and 200 total.

"FIS’s tyranny has gone on long enough. It seems FIS is going out of their way to ruin the sport," wrote Ligety in a blog entry titled "The Tyranny of FIS".

"Athletes, SRS (Association of Ski Racing Suppliers) and NGBs (national governing bodies) are completely impotent in their ability to create positive change in our sport or stand against rules FIS imposes," he added.

The alteration of the skis will take effect next season in what FIS contends is in the best interest of athletes. Decisions to impose the regulations were made over the summer and based upon scientific evidence from studies conducted by the University of Salzburg in Austria relating to knee injuries sustained while skiing.

Ligety and other elite racers claim that the studies had numerous flaws, including the failure of researchers to compare recent data about injuries with that from previous eras of racing when longer, straighter, less-shaped skis were in use. He also argues that the changes are a major step backward for the technological progression of the sport and that the new skis could cause greater fatigue among athletes, thereby resulting in more injuries.

Two-time Olympian Kilian Albrecht, a recently retired racer who serves as chairman of the FIS Athletes Commission, recently launched a new website while forming the Ski Athletes Network on behalf of alpine racers.

"The skiers need to talk with one voice," he tells Around the Rings.

"The petition this summer was actually the start of everything.

"In the past FIS was right when they would say if you ask the athletes, you’d have too many opinions among 10 athletes. But I don’t believe that. There are a lot of common things that the athletes have that we can work on. Basically, every sport has a union."

Albrecht isn’t the only one advocating a union in light of the ongoing athlete unrest.

"Unfortunately for alpine ski racing FIS monopolizes the sport so any and all changes will be hard fought or take FIS vastly rethinking their position in how the sport progresses or more likely regresses," Ligety wrote on his blog.

"Perhaps it’s time to unionize the athletes or start an alternative tour."

The reigning world champion in giant slalom, Ligety feels that the equipment changes will ruin the sport of ski racing.

"The new skis will make skiing at the World Cup level less enjoyable to watch and perhaps more importantly far less enjoyable to participate in while making it more dangerous," he wrote on his website.

"The FIS should let the ski companies and the athletes decide what is safer for the sport," adds Albrecht.

Speaking to ATR this week, FIS president Gian-Franco Kasper acknowledged the skiers' complaints but said he thinks commercial interests may be behind their movement.

"It's one ski manufacturer behind it that doesn’t agree with it but we had to do something for the safety of the athletes," he said at IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

Ligety uses skis and bindings from Head.

"We can’t go on like this having knee injuries every day. We had to change the equipment. We really hope that this was the right thing to do."

Kasper told ATR he thinks the skiers will come to agree with FIS.

"They change their minds, normally, when they are in the hospital," he said.

Miller, Top Racers Express Concerns

The ski regulations, which will go into effect next season on the World Cup tour and the season after for FIS junior races, could potentially alter which athletes are at the top of the sport by the time the Sochi 2014 Olympics are contested.

"The one unfortunate card FIS has on us, and really why they can pull whatever they want to pull on us, is they have the Olympics," Ligety told The Associated Press last week. "In order to go to the Olympics, you have to race World Cup."

Five-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller, who won a downhill Friday on Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey course, has also been an outspoken critic of the future ski changes.

"I ski because I like to ski a certain way. If they change that so I can’t ski the way I want to, because the equipment doesn’t allow it, doesn’t allow you to do the thing you want to, I probably won’t race anymore," he said.

Albrecht tells ATR that many racers believe improved athlete safety could best be achieved through better course preparation, course setting or possibly even a mandate that racers compete while wearing slower, bulkier speed suits.

Three-time World Cup downhill champion Didier Cuche also says the changes could negatively impact the sport’s future.

"I don’t think it’s the best way to get young guys into the sport," the Swiss veteran told Ski Magazine in Beaver Creek.

"They will have to jump up 15 centimeters in ski length. That’s going to be hard for them, especially the ones who don’t weigh a lot. It’s hard to turn the skis. They’re might be more injuries because of that. There’s more to address than just skis when it comes to safety."

In response to the recent criticism, FIS chief race director Guenter Hujara said: "FIS didn’t come by these rule changes lightly. They were imposed after a lengthy injury research project involving scientists and experts from all over.

It wasn’t a decision that was made in one hour, one day, or even one month. It’s a three-year project," he added. "For sure we listen to our athletes."

Ligety Protests Logo Restrictions

In response to FIS suggestions that various restrictions on sponsors emblazoned on helmets, goggles and speed suits will now be strictly enforced, Ligety rebelled during a race on Sunday by competing with a black "censored" sticker on his goggles strap.

The Park City ski racer, who owns a helmet and goggle company named Shred, could now be fined or penalized if the logo on his goggle strap exceeds a length of 15 square cm, a rule he says has previously been overlooked.

"There is no point sponsoring a ski racer let alone starting a small company based around ski racing when one’s logo is too small to be noticeable," he said.

Written and reported by Brian Pinelli.