IAWLS General Assembly

Cavalese, January 25, 2008

President’s Report

This report summarizes the actions undertaken by the Executive Committee after the previous report submitted to the General Assembly in Bedřichov, January 13, 2007.

Relations with the Members

Membership

Mid-November 2007 we had 255 individual members and one associated member, representing 25 countries.

Advice for Skiers

Some chapters of the Advice on our website have been updated. The date of the latest revision is shown under each chapter.

We have received only lauds for these texts. But this may mean that skiers who did not find the kind of information they expected did not write to us. We again solicit our members: the value of the Advice depends very much on your input. Do not hesitate to send us criticisms and suggestions for improvements.

Race Reports

During the past season we managed to publish a report on every WL race on our website. We decided to write the reports from the point of view of citizen skiers. Mostly the reports are accompanied by pictures taken by participants from within the race. The latest report was on Kangaroohoppet 2007.

With the report we give a selection of results of IAWLS members. Since we appreciate the performance of the last skier as much as that of the fastest, we often give the names in decreasing order of times. Maybe the best way is to present one or more skiers per country, in alphabetical order of the countries, which gives the times in random order. We give the winner’s time because skiers may use this to evaluate their own performance. The time ratio (skier’s time divided by the winner’s time) is the best criterion for rating the performance. Since the times are given as hh:mm:ss, you must first change them in seconds and then calculate the ratio. Doing this you can see whether you had a better result than the previous year in the same race, or whether your performance in race X was better than in race Y the same year.

Website

Bengt has restructured the website which had grown to a big size, to make older articles easier to consult. Nothing has been erased, you can find all articles since the beginning of the website in September 2005.

Besides the race reports, the Advice and the letters to WL, we have published articles of several kinds:

  -reports on assiduous members (the Royal Couple),

  -a study of the most assiduous WL nations,

  -reports on summer activities (Tour du Mont Blanc),

  -information on new developments in WL races ( Marcialonga’s Ideal Start, etc.).

To WL skiers summers seem endless. That’s why we have tried to keep our website moving all around the year. We do not intend to publish advice on training, that’s something everybody can find in specialized periodicals or books. The same is true for food and health issues, as well as waxing and ski preparation.

 But information on hiking or cycling circuits seems to be an interesting item. The previous year we published Saul’s report on his Great Dolomites Cycling Adventure. We invite our members to submit their stories for publication. And of course the stories on your unforgettable experiences in WL races are welcome.

Relations with WL and WL races

The letter of February 2007 from IAWLS to WL

The text of this letter is visible on our website, here I give only a summary.

First proposal: Specify a minimum distance for races that must be shortened in bad weather conditions. We proposed as minimum one half of the usual WL requirement, i.e. 25 km for the gold races (21 km above 1500m) and 10 km for the silver races.

Second proposal: When a race is cancelled, and if the organizer is able to reimburse part of the registration fee, do it by attributing a credit for registrations in any of the three following years.

Third proposal: in order to attract young family members, keep the minimum age limit as low as possible.

In October 2007 we were informed that the WL Executive Committee almost completely shared our views but considered that WL should not influence too much the rules of individual races, especially when they are determined by national law. We think that this concerns the minimum age and wait for further clarification of these issues by WL.

Global Worldloppet Skier

As reported on our website, and later printed in the Worldloppet Yearbook, our proposal to adopt a new recognition for those who have skied all 14 WL races was unanimously accepted by the WL Annual General Meeting in June 2007. The name we proposed, Global Worldloppet Skier (GWLS) was adopted.

Marcialonga’s Ideal Start

We reported about Marcialonga’s revolutionary start arrangement on our website. We considered that it opened a new era in WL races. Skiers were enthusiastic about it and we decided to do our best to publicize the arrangement. We did it in several ways:

-First we congratulated Marcialonga for this development by a letter to the Marcialonga key persons,

-Since the press mentioned that some Marcialonga organizers were nostalgic about the visual effect of the stampede of hundreds of skiers at the start, as opposed to the continuous flow seen in the new start arrangement, we insisted on the interest of adopting the Ideal Start also in 2008 at the normal start place Moena.

-We wrote to four other WL races drawing their attention to Marcialonga’s start system.

The results were as follows:

- Marcialonga confirmed that they will use the Ideal Start at Marcialonga 2008.

- Jizerská Padesátka decided in September 2007 to adopt the Ideal Start in the 2008 race.

- Engadin Ski Marathon thanked us for this proposal, however in 2008 they have another big innovation, the half marathon, and they prefer to postpone the consideration of a new start system to the following year.

-Tartu Maraton’s Chief of Board Indrek Kelk will participate in Marcialonga 2008 and study the start system, thereafter they will discuss its use in Tartu.

- Finlandiahiihto’s chairman Juha Viljamaa will participate in Marcialonga 2008 and study the start system, thereafter they will discuss its use in Finlandiahiihto.

So, it seems that the new era is not a dream! In some years time the starts which involve hundreds or thousands of skiers starting at the same time with its corollary, the battle field effect, broken material and injuries, not to speak of the time lost in bottlenecks, will belong to history. Skiers will be able to ski at their own pace in a relaxed manner right from the start.

Seeding

I described the seeding system that we propose in the previous President’s report. It consists in using as criterion for rating a skier’s performance level the time ratio. For example, if in a certain WL race the requirement for entering start wave 4 is time ratio 1.60, then a skier who has achieved this time ratio in any other WL race will be given entry in wave 4 in this race. Most WL races use the time ratio. Our proposal is that

  -all other WL races are to be taken into account without penalty factors,

  -results of the two last seasons are accepted,

  -seeding requirements be transparent and not a black box.

These discussions will require time, it is a long term project. We are glad to report that Jizerská Padesátka has adopted our proposal.

Double events

We are happy to state that there are five WL races that offer two gold races on two different days the same week-end, one CT and one FT. These are Dolomitenlauf, Koenig-Ludwig- Lauf, La Transjurassienne, Gatineau Loppet and Finlandia Hiihto. This is interesting for a great number of skiers:

-those who are using only one of the two techniques, one day is suitable for them,

-those who are assiduous skiers and will ski on both days.

Silver races

The Executive Committee does not forget that there are many skiers who concentrate on the shorter Silver Master races. We are glad to note that Engadin Ski Marathon will offer a half marathon from Maloja to Pontresina in 2008, in parallel with the 42 km race. Thus, all WL races except Vasaloppet and Birkebeinerrennet, have a Silver race on the same day as the Gold race or the day before. Vasaloppet organizes three silver races 9(CT), 5(CT) and 2(FT) days before Vasaloppet itself. Jizerská Padesátka organizes a 30 km FT race 2 days before the gold race and Marcialonga has the 22 km CT Lavazèloppet 3 days before the gold race.

Composition of the Executive Committee

According to the Statutes the Executive Committee consists of up to 10 members. We have now 8 members.

The committee considers that it is purposeful to include a new French member for two reasons:

- Hannes Larsson has announced his retirement in 2009, at the end of his term. IAWLS is registered in France and the relations with the authorities require a French speaking person. The committee has also often to answer requests from French speaking IAWLS members.

-A one-year overlapping period allows a progressive training in the administrative duties with respect to the French authorities.

The committee recommends for election by the General Assembly Christophe Joanblanq (FRA). He is presented on the separate sheet “Presentation of a candidate for election in the Executive Committee”. Many members have certainly met him on the ski tracks and will recognize him from the picture.

The President

Hannes Larsson

This page was last revised on December 19, 2007