Lara Malsiner & Co. will go on tour with the men next winter. © ANSA / ANTONIO BAT

FIS plans only joint World Cups from 2026/27

The FIS wants to introduce the complete merging of the World Cup venues for women and men in ski jumping from the 2026/27 season. Ski jumping race director Sandro Pertile announced this on Monday in Bischofshofen.

06 January 2025

From: apa

This is intended to increase the importance of women's sport, said the Italian. The step would mean that normal hills such as Villach, Hinzenbach or Ljubno would no longer be part of the World Cup. The ÖSV has already recently criticized this.

According to Pertile, there will be a transition phase next winter with several joint World Cups for both sexes. Full integration is planned for the post-Olympic season of 2026/27. "We don't need a revolution, but integration is a great opportunity to modernize the sport. We want to increase the value of women's jumping," said Pertile. The Italian noted that the integration plans were clearly defined on paper and in terms of time, but that implementation would not be so easy. He was addressing the resistance that is likely to come not only from the ÖSV.

Disappearance of normal hills as a problem

Pertile admitted that the disappearance of normal hill locations associated with integration would also cause problems in the training of young athletes. As a solution, the FIS is considering a kind of World Cup for young athletes on small hills. As part of the merger of the gender divisions, Pertile will gradually take over the women's race director duties from the Japanese Chika Yoshida by 2026/27.

As part of the integration, the FIS wants to cut down on trial runs in order to streamline the dense program and only hold one qualification per World Cup weekend in the future. New competition formats are also being considered, said Pertile, without giving any details. What is certain, however, is that the existing ski jumping hills will be enlarged. And there will also be a ski jumping training hill in the USA in the next few years.

Excitement about shower gel as a bonus

The FIS is not happy with the fuss about the unequal qualification prize money at the turn of the year. While the Tour qualification winners received 3000 Swiss francs as usual, the German women's Two Nights Tour qualification winner Selina Freitag only received towels and shower gel in Garmisch.

"We are aware that this gap exists, and of course we want to work even harder to close it. But you also have to take into account that it is not easy to finance women's competitions," said Pertile, regretting the very poor appearance. Unlike the men's competitions, there are no fixed qualifying prize money set for the women's competitions by the organizers.