FIS snowboard has held the rights of qualifying snowboard to the Olympics since 1998. However the snowboard community offers a broad and 30-year-long history of events within the Olympic freestyle disciplines halfpipe and slopestyle. In 2011 slopestyle was added as a new discipline to the Winter Olympic Games for Sochi 2014, further challenging the strained and fragmented calendar situation within international snowboarding. The snowboard community has initiated dialogue with FIS to start cooperating on a joint qualification for the Olympics as well as a global competition calendar solution for the better good of competitive snowboarding.

On October 7 2011, the Ticket To Ride (TTR) met with Sarah Lewis, Secretary General for FIS, Marcel Looze, FIS Marketing Director and the FIS snowboard staff. The purpose of the meeting was to present a joint Olympic qualification system, based on a cooperation between FIS and TTR in which the top four TTR events and the top four FIS World Cups would be used in a newly created “Olympic Qualification System,” as well as a global competition calendar solution.

Although the TTR presented the proposal, it was initially developed by the joint Freestyle Snowboard Task Force representing FIS, TTR, nations, athletes and coaches.

During the meeting, it was agreed that FIS will respond to the proposal by the beginning of November.

A draft of the proposal was presented on October 6, during the official FIS Snowboard Task Force meetings and received strong support from the nations.

TTR President, Reto Lamm, said this about his outlook on the outcome of the meeting: “In support of TTR’s goal to create a fair and equitable qualification system that is widely supported by the riders, the nations and the global snowboard community, TTR hopes for a positive outcome for the better good of the sport of snowboarding.”

Get Involved

Because, everyone can make a difference. If you care about the future of snowboarding take the time to get involved…you can spend 5 seconds or 5 minutes.

What can you do?

• Post your thoughts – Tell us what you think? How do you envision the future of competitive snowboarding?
• Use our badge – Show your support. Download the Snowboarders Unite image and use it as badge by posting it via Facebook or Twitter.
• Post a letter – Feeling inspired? Use one of these templates to shoot off a letter to the FIS, IOC or your local National Snowboard Association. They all need to hear from you!

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