FIS in Snowboarding a Slippery Slope

"It's just really old school, the whole Olympic thing."

—Terje Håkonsen

Some more enlightening thoughts from the 'Great One' of snowboarding.

Do you give a shit at all about the Olympics this time around?

"No. If you look at the big picture the Olympics are a great event for the whole world to watch on TV but behind the scenes it's all politics. In the snowboarding world, you still have a ski federation holding the sanctioned events and forcing snowboarders who really don't want to ride FIS events but do want to go to the Olympics, to do their events for the points. Plus you can only send four people per country. Some countries have eight or six and that should be sent and others shouldn't be able to send anyone because their guys wouldn't be able to win anywhere. It's just really old school, the whole Olympic thing. Then you look in the papers and its not about who really did good—it's about countries and how many medals they got. I think our generation has a little more interest in seeing the individual performer. You know my pro team has a few Norwegian guys and I know them pretty good and there are other guys from Finland, Switzerland and the States and I know them better than some guy from another pro team that just happens to be from Norway. It's nothing against him but he's a stranger from Norway, I'm not just naturally closer to him, you know what I mean? We don't sit around the lodge in groups from our own country in the same uniform; we hang out with who we have the same interests as because snowboarding is about the individual. A national team just doesn't make sense for snowboarding. The only sport I think where it's cool to have a national team is World Cup soccer. Like I said I think it's the older generation that has that pride to say fuck yeah, Norway took so many medals!' It's the medal hunt instead of individual performance." ESPN Snowboarding

“The only thing snowboarding itself needs to be saved from is having a ski federation running it for Olympic qualification and the event at the Olympics. That is really weird. You don’t see other sports being run by someone else. Guys that really hated us from the start are making big bucks off of snowboarding. How weak is that? Biathletes aren’t run by FIS. Those guys who cross-country ski and shoot; they hate FIS, so they formed their own organization. Snowboarders are weak! Like sheep! It’s like having someone showing them a pot of gold and everyone is running for it. Not everyone is in a situation to where they can do much, but many people are. Every time someone goes to a FIS contest, they support a ski contest. Snowboarders need to hold the sanctioned events for the IOC to acknowledge, but the FIS and IOC have long-term relationships. They do a lot of give-give, buddy-buddy work with one another. It’s going to be tough. New rumors are that the IOC is trying to have a Youth Olympics. They are so desperate to get into action sports and more TV viewers". Snowboarder Mag

Looking back at your Olympic boycott of ‘98, would you do the same now?

"Yes, if you call it a boycott. I just decided not to go, and the media just helped me blow that up. I just said what I meant. I actually said that far before snowboarding was even sanctioned as an event. I just think our generation is more about individual performance than about your country getting a medal. When you look at the newspapers during the Olympics, it’s hardly ever about the individuals. It’s about how many medals every country has. And then we can go out to the bar and talk about how great our countries are. I think nationalism, with people traveling and having friends all over the world, in different generations, I think it’s a really old school format by now."

"Athletes on national teams of a lot of classic sports get really fed up with it because there are so many middle-men in these national structures. The athletes are the individuals with all the potential but they are being treated like just pieces of the puzzle. And in the end, just get a little slice of the cake while they deserve much more, they are the ones driving the whole thing. A good example are the bi-athletes: They used to be part of the FIS before and simply figured out they could do it a lot better than them so they started their own federation. If you’re strong enough…if all snowboarders picked one federation and didn’t act like sheep and just follow, we could do it. I don’t see a reason why the World Snowboard Federation shouldn’t be able to hold the qualifications to the Olympics. That’s why I am saying, if you really have love for a sport and respect it, then why don’t you just have the best people doing it and the people who really care about it. And it ruins a lot of the true snowboarding competitions, because every other year, FIS will force people to do their events if they want to qualify, and it’s extremely confusing for the media. Like when FIS holds their “World Championships” in Korea, while in reality, the world’s best riders are all at the Burton European Open. The mainstream needs clarity. They’re like, “Should we write about the ‘Worlds,’ or should we write about the best riders? Fuck, we are not even going to write about it because it’s such a circus.” Where’s the credibility?" Snowboarder Mag