IRO and Statute Amendments and Emergency Paragraph resolved

Hall (FIL) At the 70th FIL Congress in Hall in Tyrol, Austria, the proposals of the Sport, Technical and Natural Track Commissions were up for decision. In addition, the proposals of the Executive Board to the Congress were voted on as well as Statute adaptations at the request of the Executive Board and the Legal Committee.

There were some discussions about technical details and changes in the International Luge Regulations (IRO) for Artificial Track Sleds and about the Statutes adaptations. The technical changes to the artificial track sleds like the changes in the luge regulations for natural track and artificial track were voted in the block and decided for implementation already for the coming season.

Among the measures adopted by the Congress on June 18 were changes in the FIL Statutes regarding "Luge as a popular or mass sport" and Gender Equality as well as name adjustments of the sport's World Federation FIL in the German and French language.

A specially founded Working Group had prepared the proposals for amendments to the Statutes for the Congress. For this purpose, an independent legal opinion was commissioned. On the proposal of the Working Group, under the leadership of FIL legal expert Dr. Christian Krähe with the help of Austrian legal experts, an amendment to the Statutes was submitted with the aim "to be able to react in extraordinary situations", as Dr. Christian Krähe said.

Most of the amendments to the statutes were voted unanimously in the block. The so-called "emergency paragraph," which regulates cases of "force majeure" such as pandemics, wars or other catastrophes, was approved by a two-thirds majority. There was one vote against and six abstentions of national member federations. FIL Executive Director Christoph Schweiger explained it as follows: "The adopted amendment to the Statutes is a broadly agreed proposal that is intended to expand the possibilities of the FIL to be able to act accordingly in acute situations in order to be able to continue the activities in an optimal way".