Val di Fiemme rules itself out, and FIS says moving the World Championships from Falun was never discussed

The 2027 World Championships are staying in Falun. Val di Fiemme, the Italian valley that had been named all week as a ready replacement, ruled itself out on Saturday, and FIS has told the Swedish Ski Association that moving the championships has not even been discussed.

“We are grateful for the esteem and trust shown in Val di Fiemme, but we categorically rule out any involvement on our part in organising the 2027 edition,” Pietro De Godenz, president of the Nordic Ski Val di Fiemme organising committee, said in a statement published by the Italian winter sports federation FISI. The valley has received no request to host, “official, formal or informal”, he said.

De Godenz gave practical reasons as well. Val di Fiemme already stages a Nordic combined World Cup on 11–13 December, a ski jumping Continental Cup on 19–20 December and the Tour de Ski finale on 8–10 January, and it is preparing the 2028 Youth Olympic Games. Hotels in the valley are largely booked for the winter, and “at present there are neither the economic nor the organisational conditions for an event of this size”. A World Championships needs long-term planning, the committee said, and can’t be improvised in a few months. The valley’s interest is only in a possible bid for the 2033 or 2035 championships, which would need the approval of its municipalities and would have to be agreed with the autonomous province of Trento.

How the rumour grew

The committee called the story “entirely unfounded” and blamed a misreading, and then a wrong translation by some foreign media, of what De Godenz said at a press conference in Milan presenting the valley’s winter events. Some outlets in Norway and Sweden had reported that the valley was ready to step in.

The statement also said the rumours may have been fed by a public remark from a member of FIS staff who suggested Val di Fiemme as an alternative if Falun had visa problems with Russian athletes. Fondo Italia had written on 23 October that FIS spokesman Bruno Sassi, interviewed by Sveriges Radio, left the door open to moving the championships, with Val di Fiemme among the alternatives. The Sveriges Radio report itself says something different: FIS called asking the authorities to refuse visas a fully viable route, because national laws stand above FIS rules and FIS has no view on which individuals a country lets in. It does not mention a move or Val di Fiemme.

As we reported last week, the earliest version of the idea we found was an NRK column of 22 October that named Val di Fiemme as a natural alternative. Russia’s ski federation president Dmitry Svishchev then presented it as a FIS warning.

FIS and the Swedish federation

On Friday the Swedish Ski Association said that FIS had confirmed there have been no discussions within FIS about moving the championships from Falun, and no plans to. The federation called it unfortunate that the reports had “created unnecessary worry”.

The same statement plays down the federation’s own role in the visa question. It says it raised visas and entry once, in the spring, in talks with the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF), that it has not pursued the matter or asked for any specific decision, and that it is running no lobbying campaign. Decisions on visas lie with the authorities.

That reads differently from ten days ago. On 21 October secretary general Pernilla Bonde told SVT that the federation had raised the issue with RF and that perhaps it could go on to the Foreign Ministry, and she told Expressen the visa route was “probably the only way to go”. RF said then that it was in contact with the Government Offices. The federation’s basic position has not changed: it still thinks Russian and Belarusian skiers should not compete while the war goes on, but it says it follows the FIS decision to let them race as neutral athletes.

The visa question now sits with the government. On Friday it asked the European Commission for EU rules that would let member states refuse visas on the basis of nationality, and for stricter common guidelines until then. Our report explains why new EU rules are unlikely to be in place before the championships.

The championships open in Falun on 24 February with qualification races for skiers from smaller nations and the opening ceremony. The first cross-country medals are decided in the freestyle sprint on 25 February, and the women’s 50 km closes the programme on 7 March.