Official languages: English, French, German and Russian[3]
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (French: Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation (Fédération Internationale de Ski) until 26 May 2022 when the name was changed to include snowboard.[9][2][10][11]
The federation organises the following ski sport disciplines, for which it oversees the FIS Games as well as World Cup competitions and World Championships:
After ski club federations and national associations were created in Norway (1883 and 1908), Russia (1896), Bohemia and Great Britain (1903), Switzerland (1904), United States, Austria and Germany (all in 1905) and Sweden, Finland and Italy (all in 1908), and competitions had begun such as the Nordic Games,[12] early international cross-country races (Adelboden, 1903), international participation at Holmenkollen (1903)[13] and Club Alpin Français (CAF) International Winter Sports Weeks, an international Ski Congress was convened to develop standard rules for international competitive skiing.
The founding of a predecessor association, the International Ski Commission (CIS), was decided on February 18, 1910, in Christiania, Norway by delegates from ten countries to the first International Ski Congress.[14] This Congress then met every year or so to hear from the CIS and refine and adopt rule changes. The commission was to consist of two members - a representative of Scandinavia and Central Europe. Ultimately, two Scandinavians sat on the commission. A year later, in March 1911, the first internationally valid set of rules was approved. At that time, the commission was enlarged to five members, and Oslo was elected as headquarters.
In 1913, the number of members of the commission was increased to seven: two Norwegians, two Swedes, a Swiss, a German and an Austrian.
On February 2, 1924, in Chamonix as part of the "International Winter Sports Week", which was later to be recognized as the first Olympic Winter Games, 36 delegates from 14 countries (Great Britain, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Yugoslavia, Norway, Poland, Romania, US, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary and Italy) decided to found the FIS, which replaced the CIS.
Initially, the FIS was only responsible for Nordic skiing. FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1925 in Janské Lázně, Czechoslovakia, were given status as the first official World Championships. After the Scandinavian countries had relented, it was decided at the 11th FIS Congress (February 24–26, 1930 in Oslo) to also include alpine skiing (downhill, slalom and alpine combined) in the rules. This was upon a proposal by Great Britain, in which the British ski pioneer Arnold Lunn played a major role as co-founder of the Arlberg-Kandahar races. The simple sentence "Downhill and slalom races may be organized" was written into the rules - a sentence that was to change skiing in the long term.[15] The first FIS Alpine World Ski Championships were held 19–23 February 1931 in Mürren, Switzerland.
Ski flying, a variation of ski jumping, was recognized as a discipline in 1938, but rules were not finalized until after World War II.
As of 2017, there are 31 official FIS Ski Museums worldwide in 13 countries which are devoted to the history of skiing, taking into account the region's own history of skiing and tourism.[19]
^ abc"Facts & Figures". FIS-ski.com. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
^ ab"Decisions of the 53rd International Ski Congress". FIS-ski.com. 26 May 2022. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 15 April 2023. The new name of the organisation is the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. The acronym of the organisation will remain FIS.
^ ab"History of FIS". FIS-ski.com. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2023. The International Ski Federation - Fédération Internationale de Ski, Internationaler Ski Verband - is abbreviated in all languages as FIS.
^"Behind the decision: It's all in a name". FIS-ski.com. 1 June 2022. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023. the General Assembly voted to formally change the name of the International Ski Federation to be the International Ski and Snowboard Federation ... Since the acronym FIS is widely recognised in the world of international sports, the Organization will remain FIS, but now with "Snowboard" as an official part of the long-form name.