Newsflash: FIS Under Even Stronger Pressure to Forego Significant Ski Changes

In an email to a handful of head coaches, program directors, and other assorted people this morning, Patrick Riml announced that everyone except FIS is on the same page about what should and shouldn't happen with equipment regulations.  Since the email has since been forwarded to any number of people, we felt comfortable copying the contents of it here:

Ladies & Gentleman,

Hope things are going well. 

I would like to give you an update on the equipment situation after the FIS meetings and more discussions in Soelden.

SRS, Athlete's and the coaches working groups are working together and are all on the same page and will propose only to change the wight [sic] of the ski in general without changing the radius since there is not enough data to guarantee bigger radius will reduce injuries.

The length of women DH skis will also be discussed because of a possible dis-advantage for smaller athletes.

The companies also feel comfortable if this will be approved to produce enough skis to support all continental Cup skier.

The council meeting on november 6th and 7th should give us the direction going forward.

PLease let me know if you have any questions.

Patrick

So there you go.  We're disappointed because the photoshop project we'd been working on, picturing Paerson vs. Hujara in a cage match, might be all for naught.  On the other hand, we're happy that we might not have to go back to 1997.  We say "might" because you'll notice that Riml only mentions the SRS (ski manufacturers), the athlete's (represented by Killian Albrecht), and the coaches working group as being on the same page, but he makes no mention of the people who actually decide what does and does not go in the rule book.  Perhaps we'll know more after the "council meeting" (whatever council he might be referring to), but as of now, things are still in the "will be discussed" state.

In related news, we got an email from a friend who said that during the meeting in Soelden, "Cuche asked all the skiers to raise their hand, then asked 'Benni? Where's Benni? Austria?' Turns out, they weren't allowed to come, robots can't have feelings."  Which is funny, especially given that, as another reader pointed out to us, both Benni and Marlies Schild had posted links to "Keep the Arc in FIS Skiing" on their Facebook pages a while back, but then swiftly and silently removed all mention of ski lengths and radius from Facebook and fansites.  Turns out, their fan clubs run their Facebook pages, and they posted the links after making the logical assumption that any reasonable ski racer would be against such regulations.  Clearly though, somebody in the Austrian federation must have sent out the memo to shut it down and just get back in line.

So, ladies and gentleman, that's the memo from the boss.

UPDATE:  Randomly came across this blog posting from the athletes union.  Had to laugh when I read the statements from Atomic at the bottom, especially in light of the Austrian situation mentioned above.  Best line:

“Studies by the Salzburg University have shown that the centrifugal forces in turns are lowered by the new material. Therefore, we hope for increased safety,” he said.

"New material"?  Do you mean "Gigantic skis"?  Also, just so we're all clear, lower centrifugal forces means that you're actually sucking more.

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