June 22, 2011 (Engadin, Switzerland) – The Worldloppet Association was founded in 1978 and brings together the most important popular Cross-Country skiing races in the world. It currently includes 15 races on four continents. In addition to the Engadin Ski Marathon, there are more races such as Vasaloppet, Birkebeiner or Marcialonga.

The aim of the annual meetings, which take place annually at different destinations, is to maintain a high standard of the races in terms of organization and service. The Engadin meeting took place from June 16-19, and enhanced cooperation between organizing committees. Participants also discussed future development of the Worldloppet.

“The Worldloppet meeting in Engadin was very successful and fruitful,” says Ivo Damaso, OC president of the host Engadine Ski Marathon. The participants agreed that Worldloppet must tackle challenges of popular skiing with a new common strategy in order to increase importance of Worldloppet races as well as the FIS Marathon Cup. The discussion among the delegates showed that new challenges such as “new media” must be actively addressed. Damaso therefore spoke of a new era and a forthcoming period of change. He stressed it is important to strengthen the position of the Association, to benefit from synergies of the members. As a result Worldloppet wants to become an umbrella of popular Cross-Country skiing.

The participants agreed that the current situation with two main series, FIS Marathon Cup and Ski Classics, is unsatisfactory where five out of six races in Ski Classics are already in the FIS Marathon Cup schedule. The dual classification leads to marketing problems and confusion. Worldloppet put its effort to merge the series in one and benefit from its attractiveness.

The assembly was also informed that the Executive Committee of Worldloppet did not receive, besides Angello Corradini, another candidacy before the election of the Secretary General. Corradini has been in office since 2004 and is also Chief of the OC of the Nordic World Ski Championships Val di Fiemme 2013.