Official end of the ski season

Sun, May  10, 2009 - By FIS

The very last entry in the FIS international calendar for the 2008/2009 season entails four FIS Freestyle ski cross competitions, originally scheduled to take place in Voss (NOR) last weekend, 2nd-3rd May, but now rescheduled until 23rd-24th May thanks to the continuing good snow conditions in the North of Europe.

The second to last event on the calendar was the traditional Fossavatn Cross-Country ski marathon that was held in Isafjördur in Iceland on 2nd May. It was the 60th edition of the 50 km race in classical technique. The race victory went to Oskar Svärd (SWE) who was more than eight minutes faster than his second-ranked countryman Ulf Tingelöf.

According to preliminary statistics, more than 24,000 athletes have started in international FIS competitions during the 2008/09 season across all nine FIS disciplines. The discipline specific figures range from 11'308 athletes from 81 nations in Alpine Skiing to 5664 cross-country athletes from 65 nations to 143 Grass Skiing athletes from 11 nations.