Decision on Global Worldloppet Skier postponed by one year

July 30, 2006

As announced earlier on this page, IAWLS President Hannes Larsson was invited to present the project “Global Worldloppet Skier” (GWLS) to the Worldloppet Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lienz, Austria, on June 17. Reminder: this proposal received an overwhelming support in the survey that we conducted in the spring of 2005. The idea is that WL should adopt a new recognition for those skiers who have skied all 14 WL races. The IAWLS Executive Committee presented it to the WL Executive Committee in September 2005. At their autumn meeting the WL EC approved the idea in principle but decided to invite us to present it at the following year’s AGM. This invitation was confirmed in the WL EC’s spring 2006 meeting. We expected therefore that the IAWLS presentation was to be followed by a decision taken by the WL AGM on June 17.

We can report good news and bad ones. The good news is that the WL AGM agreed in principle on the proposal. When the session chairman asked whether anybody had principle objections against the proposal, not a single hand was raised. Also, Angelo Corradini declared that this project can be taken care of by the Worldloppet General Secretariat without extra personnel or costs.

The bad news is that for administrative reasons, voting was not possible because the item had not been placed on the agenda as an item for voting. This means that the official acceptance of the GWLS system will be decided at the 2007 WL AGM.

Meanwhile, all those who have already skied all 14 WL races can continue to be proud of it. They are really Global Worldloppet Skiers; only the official recognition of this status by WL (through publication of the list of GWLSs on the WL web site and in the Yearbook) is postponed. We know that at least one IAWLS member, Pete, has embroidered on his jacket: “Global Worldloppet Skier, Tartu, February 2006”.

This page was last revised on September 16, 2007