Shortly before the new election of the FIS President, criticism of Johan Eliasch is getting louder. After Marco Odermatt, Loïc Meillard and Mikaela Shiffrin are now also opposing the current ski boss.
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- Shortly before the election of the new FIS president in a week and a half, the criticism of Johan Eliasch is getting louder.
- After Marco Odermatt called for the 64-year-old to be voted out of office, Loïc Meillard and Mikaela Shiffrin are now also speaking out.
- "I would like to see a new president who does less for himself and more for skiing," says Meillard.
The FIS presidential election is scheduled for June 11 in Belgrade. The closer the election gets, the more likely it seems that there will be a change at the top of the international ski federation. This is because criticism of Johan Eliasch, who has been in office for 5 years, is becoming ever louder.
Major federations have been speaking out against the 64-year-old's re-election for some time now. "Johan Eliasch has lost the trust of numerous national federations. The financial situation of the FIS is worrying. Governance, transparency and communication are so poor that the overall situation is unacceptable for more and more federations," Swiss-Ski CEO Diego Züger recently explained to Blick.
But it's not just the federations, more and more athletes are also speaking out publicly against Eliasch. "We have to realize that not much has progressed in recent years. I have also heard from insiders that the FIS has developed anything but positively in terms of finances. And that's why there's not much choice but to make a change at the top of the FIS," said overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt around two weeks ago, calling for Eliasch to be voted out.
Broken promises and a lack of transparency
Now two big names, Loïc Meillard and Mikaela Shiffrin, are following suit. "I have no problem at all with Eliasch as a person, but as president of the FIS he hasn't delivered what he promised. That's why I would like to see a new president who does less for himself and more for skiing," Meillard makes clear in Blick. Shiffrin criticizes: "Many of us athletes have the feeling that the FIS and the current leadership have shown a considerable lack of transparency."
According to research by FIS athlete spokesperson AJ Ginnis, the financial situation of the FIS has deteriorated in recent years. According to the research, around 130 million francs were in the FIS account when Eliasch took office in 2021, now it is said to be just under 43 million. "If Eliasch had used these millions to make our sport better, I could live with this balance. But unfortunately that didn't happen," says Meillard.
Four election opponents for Eliasch
Eliasch is also not keeping his promise of higher prize money. On the contrary: next winter, a World Cup organizer is to set a minimum prize money of 153,000 francs. The FIS only contributes just under 24,000 francs per event.
"Much of what the current leadership has promised is not really being put into practice," Shiffrin chooses clear words and positions herself clearly: "I hope that regardless of who will be president in the future, this person will really stand by the athletes and show that they appreciate our achievements through transparency and honesty."
Because his British home federation does not want to nominate him for re-election, Eliasch is running for Georgia this year. The incumbent president is likely to have a tough time against Anna Harboe Falkenberg (Denmark), Victoria Gosling (Great Britain), Alexander Ospelt (Liechtenstein) and Dexter Paine (USA).
