Peter Lange
At the July 5th FIS Council meetings in Zurich, the members agreed to continue to pay 20% of the event prize money. Originally the FIS contribution to prize money started as a form of COVID-19 financial relief for Local Organizing Committees.
Although the need for COVID-19 relief may be over, the FIS will continue subsidizing prize money. The FIS has agreed to contribute a ten percent increase and a ten percent subsidy. Therefore, if an organizer offers 100,000 CHF* in prize money, FIS will increase it ten percent to 110,000 CHF. Additionally, there is a FIS ten percent subsidy. So ultimately the organizer’s out-of-pocket would be 90,000 CHF.
Many in the industry are encouraged to see the FIS continue seeking ways to increase prize money. It is also important to note that Johan Eliasch’s cash prize priority is making incremental progress. Significantly, the FIS is following through on its vision to become the source.
The 2021/22 season’s prize money was nice, but the athletes deserve the ten percent raise. The increase should also benefit many of the ski technicians who receive a portion of the cash prize as bonuses.
Below we provide the cash prize data for the top ten men and women. A few thing of interest are the average birth year for both men and women in the top 10 was 1992. The youngest are two Norwegian men born in 2000. Finally, interestingly, their Overall FIS World Cup rank rarely correlates with their position on the money list. Winning goes a long way and winning in Kitzbühel goes even further. Last year the winners in Kitzbühel each took home 110,000 CHF.
*CHF is a Swiss Franc – today’s value is $1.03
