It is that time to get licensed up, if you haven’t already. There are two licenses to consider: one from the US Ski & Snowboard (USSS) that govern races to a national standard, and another from the Federation International Ski (FIS) that govern races on an international standard.
The USSS license establishes a ‘point profile’ from USSS races (such as the Besh Cups) and you will want to start–and continue–building it. One advantage is improved start order ranking so if you don’t like your placement in a mass starting grid, for example, this is how to make it better. And of course, you’ll be looped in with our national governing body and receive important information and other resources. It is required to score points at the Besh Cup races and to qualify for trips like the Junior National Championships and the Arctic Winter Games. Even though those events will not happen this season, it is still very worthwhile to have a USSS license to build your point profile.
There are multiple options of USSS licenses:
- General Membership – This is only useful if you only wish to be ‘in the loop’ with US Ski and Snowboard
- Competitor Membership – This is the option to select if you want to score points at USSS races and build your point profile.
- Non-Scored Membership – This is useful if you want to be ‘in the loop’ and just want to participate in USSS races.
The FIS license becomes relevant at the U18 age class (and older) if you have goals of qualifying for any National Teams such as the U18 Scando Cup or Junior World Championships within 1-2 years. Similar to the USSS license, building the FIS point profile is important. This year, selection for the US Junior World Championship Team will likely be purely based upon the FIS point profile. Also, the points that you can get this year locally will become relevant in future seasons. Since national level races have been cancelled due to COVID-19, the local race calendar has been boosted with FIS sanctioned races. For example, all Besh Cups this year are USSS and FIS sanctioned.
To sign up for the USSS license, go here to the US Ski and Snowboard website. The FIS license is an add-on within the same USSS portal so if you also wish to get that one it is a single check-out process.
Important Notes . . .
- Make sure to navigate to the Cross Country side of the membership. USSS also manages alpine, freestyle, and snowboard disciplines 🙂
- If you have turned 18 years of age or will turn 18 by June 30th, 2021, you will be required to complete SafeSport training. It is a great and important process to be a part of.
The fee for the USSS license increases November 1st, 2020.