June 17, 2012 – The eight meetings relating to Cross-Country Skiing in Kangwonland (KOR) discussed various calendar and rules updates, leading to the following refinements approved by the FIS Council.

As of the upcoming season, the men’s relay in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup will be shortened to 4×7.5km. With this change, competitions will become more compact for TV transmission and shorter distances may encourage teams to be more active and offensive.

In mass start competitions, stadiums will provide an extended path for the ski exchange zone. These extra meters seek to animate the competition, and will provide the media with longer athlete coverage.

The maximum number of ski exchanges in mass start competitions will be based on the course and lap length, but should be limited to 3 in competitions up to 30 km, 5 in competitions longer than 30 km and 1 in skiathlon competitions.

In addition, the maximum distance of ladies sprint course has been extended from 1.4km to 1.6km.

Clarification of procedures for penalties have been defined, including special rules for allowing substitution of disqualification with time penalty in multi-stage events, as per decision of the competition jury.

Furthermore, waxing and team service have seen a substantial change in past years especially with the introduction of teams’ waxing trucks. New specifications now simplify the situation.