April 2, 2009 – The 2009 FIS World Cup Cross Country season ended with the final 10/15 km skate events in Falun, Sweden March 22. FIS Newsflash recently caught up with FIS Race Director Jurg Capol to get his thoughts on the 2008-09 World Cup season.

FIS Newsflash: Your overall impressions of the 2008/2009 season?
Jurg Capol: We had a unique season with many beautiful competitions and lots of excitement until the last World Cup competition. The 2009 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Liberec were carried out in top conditions and the level of competitions was outstanding. The 3rd Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear was the best ever and we are convinced we are on the right way. The TV productions were better balanced. All our changes worked well and the sport is headed in the right direction. In total we had 16 different nations on the podium which shows that Cross-Country is a high level sport in many countries.

FIS Newsflash: What was from your perspective the highlight of the season and why?
JC: I’m not picking out any individual performances, as I saw many of them. But the fight for the overall World Cup decision was carried out in the final races. We never had more excitement lasting until the end of the season than this year. Moreover our strategy to implement the Tour de Ski as a presentation platform for the sport is working well. The principles are easy to understand, create the right package and increase general interest in our sport.

FIS Newsflash: What needs to be reviewed for next season?
JC: We will do a few corrections, but we will stay as defined in the long term World Cup calendar plans. We would like to implement a three-stage World Cup event in November 2009 following the Tour principle. A highlight to start the season should help increase the interest. At the same time, we would like to integrate all involved partners including the organizing committees at all FIS levels, industry, tourism etc. behind a joint marketing project. In general we should focus even more on promotion and communication to get more attention.