FIS unveils rules for first-ever Mixed Team Sprint – they are fascinating

“… And Now for Something Completely Different” – that might as well be a title for the format of a brand-new mixed gender relay sprint FIS just unveiled:

Qualification Teamsprint: Each athlete will individually ski one lap by interval start. The result of the qualification round will be calculated by accumulating the times of both athletes and the 20 best team will be qualified to the Final.

During the Finals, each athlete of the team will alternatively ski 6 laps each in the following order Women / Man. The last 2 teams will be eliminated after lap 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Overlapping rules will apply. No physical contact between the competitors is required for the exchange.

Wow. Almost a revolution in one of the most traditional sports on the planet that spins faster and faster. Imagine – sprints, the last major update, were introduced in the times of dinosaurs I.e. before social networks took over the Earth!

Mixed relay, however, shall be a relatively boring affair – no anticipated ” free gender positioning on each leg”. Oh, one has to start somewhere

“..In the Mixed Relay, the order will be woman | man | man | woman and each athlete will ski a 5km leg..”