At 9:22 p.m. on an eventful Saturday in the winter sports world, Johan Eliasch contacted an unknown person. Previously, the Swiss ski racer Marco Odermatt had won the giant slalom in Val d’Isère, the Austrian Cornelia Hütter had won the downhill race in Beaver Creek, in which Lindsey Vonn made her comeback as a forerunner. The President of the World Ski and Snowboard Association (Fis) doesn’t like the fact that all of these stories are being pushed into the background. Therefore now the email to an internal distribution list.
The question that is currently weighing heavily on the scene is: Who is to blame for the fact that the majority of athletes, the national associations, the Fis Council and the President cannot simply deal with beautiful pictures from the snow, but in… Are you stuck in a dispute that is taking on ever greater proportions?
For Eliasch, the answer to this question has been clear since Saturday afternoon at the latest. Then he received a third letter, signed by Verena Stuffer and Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen, the co-chairs and a member of the Fis Athletes Commission. The letter accuses the Fis President of serious misconduct: on the one hand, in dealing with the offer from the private equity firm CVC. On the other hand, the athletes accuse Eliasch of not taking them seriously – and of acting from a dual role that some see as a threat to their careers.
Eliasch is still a non-executive director at ski outfitter Head
Both the third letter and a reply letter that Eliasch sent by email to the athletes and other involved parties on Saturday evening are available to the SZ.
The fact that the athletes criticized Eliasch’s quick rejection of CVC’s 400 million offer was already clear from the first two letters that were made public last week. 71 racing drivers signed the second letter, which was also published on social media – and which led Eliasch to respond. The Fis president publicly stated that the athletes had been “deceived”: he knew many of them personally and had cleared up any misleading information in discussions. In a conversation with the APA agency, Eliasch even claimed: “Some athletes may have nothing better to do because they are sick or have an injury.”
The reply came promptly. Eliasch implied that the athletes “did not fully understand the document they signed,” the athletes now write: This insinuation is “not only inaccurate, but also derogatory towards the professionalism of the athletes and their commitment to the sport.” Sport”. The athletes, who also met with CVC representatives in an online conversation last week for a detailed exchange, understood “exactly” what it was about. The dismissive attitude of the Fis president would only emphasize once again how “urgent and important” reforms would be.
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The allegations that can be found further down in the letter are even more serious. This time it was decided not to put any signatures on the letter from athletes who are equipped by the ski company Head: “To protect their identities and their relationship with the provider (of ski equipment, editor’s note) to be maintained”. Because as Fis President, Eliasch still has a “determined leadership” at Head. This equipment provider maintains “close communication” with its athletes. This has now had serious consequences: “Several athletes who were not mentioned in the first letters have expressed their concerns and are hesitant to take part in the project because they fear for their careers and possible repercussions.”
Eliasch’s dual role has been considered questionable in the scene for a long time. In addition to his role as Fis President, the Brit still employed as a non-executive director at Head – the company he previously led as CEO for years. A year ago there was already a questionable constellation when the Fis was supposedly equipped with Head clothing out of necessity. Eliasch has also always denied that he could influence the athletes who are equipped by Head. This time too, he firmly contradicted such allegations in his internal email on Saturday evening. He obviously deliberately addressed it to “the author of this letter” – and not to the athletes who signed it. This fits with Eliasch’s questionable narrative that there are currently “forces in the background trying to disrupt and sabotage the athletes.”
In any case, this third letter is “difficult to understand,” writes Eliasch on Saturday evening, as it is filled with “unfounded allegations.” He “never pressured any head athlete to refrain from signing such letters,” nor did he “threaten anyone to end support.” Instead, he spoke to many athletes to “better understand why they would have signed such a letter,” even if they “may not have had access to all the relevant information.”
Instead, Eliasch makes further accusations on the athletes’ side. They would damage the so-called “Fis family” with “letters of this kind, unfounded claims and the spread of false information,” the email says. What is left of this family – and whether the athletes still see Eliasch as part of the family or even as the head – is currently more questionable than ever.
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