FIS votes for equal distances for women and men

Fri, Jun  3, 2022 - By Mike Muha

FIS votes for equal distances for women and men

The FIS Cross Country Committee (CCC) votes 57% to 33% that women and men will race the same distances starting with the upcoming World Cup season. The vote was approved by the FIS Council.

The implementation ruling affects:

• The World Cup
• Junior World Ski Championships (JWSC)
• U23 World Ski Championships (U23 WSC)
• Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG)

The World Ski Championships were excluded from the decision - it will be discussed with all stakeholders and decided in May 2023.

Race distance for both women and me for the 2022-2023 season will be:

• World Cup: Sprint | 10km | 20km | 50km with Skiathlon being 20km (10km + 10km)
• U23 WSC: Interval 10km | Sprint | Mixed Relay 4x5km | Mst 20km
• JWSC: Interval 10km | Sprint | Mixed Relay 4x5km | Mst 20km
• YOG: Interval 7.5km | Sprint | Mixed Relay 4x5km

According to the CCC, the discussion revolved around two main factors: The main argument for equal distances was that there should no question whether women were capable of racing the same distances as men, as they have proved that they are physically capable of doing so already. The main argument against was the time that women need to cover the same distance as men and the effective TV time.