The International Ski and Snowboard Federation acquires the Freeride World Tour

The FIS and the Freeride World Tour (FWT) join forces. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has acquired the Freeride World Tour (FWT). With the aim of developing the test on a global scale. FWT will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of the tour, while the federation will focus on the marketing and governance of the circuit and integrating the competition into its structure, which follows the guidelines of the recognized sports of the Olympic Games. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.

The FWT is the world circuit of snowboarding and freestyle skiing freerideoffering the best knights They compete in major ski resorts. The competition currently has more than 6,000 licensed “pilots”., from junior level to elite competitions. Each season an average of five high-level events and two hundred lower-level events. The Freeride World Tour elite has three levels of development: Challenger, Qualifier yes Junior.

The FWT has 6,000 licenses and holds five top-level events per season

Johan Eliasch, president of the FIS, assured that “with the integration of the FWT, the FIS will add to its portfolio one of the most exciting and dynamic competition formats for winter sports”. Furthermore, he added that “FIS can offer enormous growth potential to FWT and give it the opportunity to develop onto a wider stage, as the FWT leads to the FIS a highly professional circuit that offers impressive action and a completely new element of skiing and snowboarding”.

Nicolas Hale-Woods, founder of the FWT, stated that “for our athletes of freeride and event organisers, coming under the umbrella of the larger International Winter Federation, recognized by the International Olympic Committee, will give them more access to support, greater visibility and additional resources.”

FIS, the international governing body for skiing and snowboarding, was founded in 1924 during the first Chamonix Winter Olympic Games (France). It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and leads the Olympic disciplines of Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, freestyle and snowboarding and establishes the regulations of international competitions.

The FWT was founded in 1996 with the start of testing Extreme Verbier and has grown to include a full circuit with races in Europe, North America, Latin America and Oceania. In 2023, the tests will take place at the stations of Kicking Horse (Canada), Baqueira Beret (Spain), Ordino Arcalís (Andorra), Fieberbrunn (Austria) and Xtreme Verbier (Switzerland).