This year’s Forum, says Rebecca Vernon, the ISMF Vice President saw the coming together of 50 people from all around the world including Russia, Canada, Norway, Andorra, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain all united with a shared passion for ski mountaineering. The Forum unites those players essential for the creation of a successful international sporting season such as race organisers, referees and technical advisors, marketing and communications experts, outside providers and members of the ISMF.”
Some of the key themes covered in presentations and discussions were the ISMF sporting and organisational rules and regulations, effective marketing and anti-doping. A meeting with the objective to improve the format of races and their media appeal, increasingly involving not only those with a passion for the sport, but also the general public and the international media.
One of the most important visitors of the Forum was Vlad Marinescu the Director General of SportAccord, an organisation that is the international big umbrella for Olympic and not Olympic International Federations, an important supplier of services for the Federation members, which not only has a system to assist with the IOC acceptance process, but is important in particular to the ISMF as partner in the fight against doping. Françoise Dagouret, Director of the Doping Free Sport department of SportAccord, gave a detailed presentation of the way in which the ISMF and SportAccord are working together on anti-doping, explaining to all the organisers present the importance of the programme, the development of biological passports, out of race testing as well as the logistics and management of anti-doping tests during the racing season.
In Lausanne the World Cup 2013/14, which will debut on 18/19 January in Verbier in Switzerland, was officially presented. Other locations will be: Courchevel for France, Val Comelico/Sappada for Italy, Les Diablerets for Switzerland and Tromso for Norway.
The organising committees of the trials programmed were able to exchange views with the judges who, during the race, will be present on the tracks.
It’s important to remember that the ISMF is not only the five World Cup races; the ISMF Series also unites important events located around the world into the international sporting calendar with competitions so far scheduled to take place in Italy, USA and Norway, with the probability that other races will be added in the near future. Of important significance this year are the three continental championships, with Andorra hosting the European Championships, Utah in the USA the North American Championships and Kamchatka in Russia, the Asian Championships.
Important news was announced related to the media with the debut of web TV and a series of services that will be implemented and give more visibility to the Scarpa ISMF World Cup circuit.
«They were very important days, – said Armando Mariotta, President of ISMF – finally in Lausanne we were able to exchange views with all the organisers of the coming season. In addition, it was very important as regards the knowledge of new rules governing the ISMF races. The coming season will be fundamental for international ski mountaineering: the new race format will be implemented and will continue to follow the guidelines drawn up last year. The professionalism of the organising committees will ensure stages of the World Cup and the Continental Championships of the standard of the circuit they represent. The most important thing is that an ad hoc video will be produced for every race with the possibility of having very high-resolution images available, which can be used for television broadcasts. In this sense important contacts were established, the results of which will be communicated shortly».
The next appointment, before the start of the races, will be the day in Verbier devoted to the presentation to the international press of the World Cup and the World Championships 2015, scheduled for 6 and 7 of December.
18 & 19 January
Verbier/Val de Bagnes SWITERLAND – (Vertical + Individual Race)
25 & 26 January
Courchevel FRANCE – (Vertical + Individual Race)
31 January & 2 February
The Pitturina Ski Race-Val Comelico-Sappada ITALY – (Sprint + Individual Race)
28 February & 2 March
Diablerets 3D-Les Diablerets SWITERLAND – (Vertical + Individual Race)
12 & 13 April
Blatind Arctic Race-Tromso NORWAY – (Sprint + Individual Race)
