Skiing body FIS signs Azerbaijan to five-year sponsor deal for world championships
GENEVA (AP) — Skiing's governing body signed the oil- and gas-rich state of Azerbaijan on Tuesday as its first global sponsor of world championships which face challenges from changing climate.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation said the five-year deal with Azerbaijan's tourism agency through the 2030 season also includes the World Cup in some disciplines, including aerials, ski cross and snowboard cross.
'Above and beyond marketing rights, the core element of the strategic partnership is to promote and develop Azerbaijan's status as a world-class winter sports destination,' FIS said in a statement.
The value of the sponsorship was not detailed.
Azerbaijan has previously used its fossil fuels revenue to invest in soccer sponsorship with UEFA and Spanish club Atletico Madrid, and hosting Formula 1 races.
The state led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev hosted the inaugural European Games in Baku in 2015 and twice bid for the Summer Games, of 2016 and 2020. Baku was not accepted as an official candidate by the International Olympic Committee.
FIS president Johan Eliasch is a long-time advocate for the environment, including in his campaign for the IOC presidential election in March that highlighted climate change.
'The urgency and scale of this challenge is increasingly real to people across the world, and they are desperately seeking practical and trustworthy leadership,' Eliasch wrote in his manifesto that claimed '80% of people around the world want more climate action.'
FIS acknowledged in November 'winter sports and tourism face a bleak future because of climate change' when the Switzerland-based governing body announced a working partnership with the United Nations weather agency in Geneva.
Azerbaijan 'is home to several ski resorts,' FIS said on Tuesday, and cited the Shahdag venue as a 'paradise for skiers and snowboarders, at more than 2,300 meters above sea level.'
'We are inviting the world to take another look and discover our country as a wonderful place of stunning mountain ranges and snow,' the chairman of the State Tourism Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Fuad Naghiyev, said in the FIS statement.
Eliasch added the Azerbaijan partnership "ticks all the boxes. It brings value to the entire range of our disciplines, to further the development of snow sports across all levels — from recreational to elite — and takes us into a new exciting growth market.'
Azerbaijan has competed at each Winter Games since 1998 though has never won a medal.
It sent two athletes to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, both in figure skating, and none in the six snow sports organized by FIS.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports in this topic
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
13 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
LA Olympics to sell naming rights to some venues in game-changing deal for 2028
Organizers of the Los Angeles Olympics will sell naming rights for a handful of its venues in deals expected to bring multiple millions of dollars to the 2028 Games while breaking down the International Olympic Committee's long-sacrosanct policy of keeping brand names off its arenas and stadiums. The organizing committee announced the landmark deal Thursday, saying contracts were already in place with two of its founding partners — Honda, which already has naming rights for the arena in Anaheim that will host volleyball, and Comcast, which will have its name on the temporary venue hosting squash. LA28 chairman and CEO Casey Wasserman said revenue from the deals goes above what's in LA's current $6.9 billion budget. He portrayed the deal as the sort of paradigm-shifting arrangement that Los Angeles needs more than other host cities because, as is typical for American-hosted Olympics, the core cost of these games aren't backed by government funding. 'We're a private enterprise responsible for delivering these games,' Wasserman said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'It's my job to push. That doesn't mean we're going to win every time we push, but it's our job to always push because our context is pretty unique.' Wasserman said he also spent time explaining to IOC members how arena and stadium names are part of the lexicon in American sports. 'People know 'Crypto' as 'Crypto,' they don't know it as 'the gymnastics arena downtown,'" Wasserman said of the home of the Lakers, Arena, which will host gymnastics and boxing in 2028. Rights for up to 19 temporary venues could be available. The IOC's biggest sponsors — called TOP sponsors — will have first chance to get in on the deals. Wasserman said no venues will be renamed — so, for instance, if organizers don't reach a deal with SoFi (opening and closing ceremonies, swimming) or Intuit (basketball), no other sponsor can put its name on the arena. Not included in this new arrangement are the LA Coliseum, Rose Bowl and Dodger Stadium, some of the most iconic venues in a city that hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984. Organizers said IOC rules that forbid advertising on the field of play will still apply. The deal adds to a growing list of accommodations pushed through for Los Angeles, which is once again poised to reshape the Olympic brand, much the way it did in 1984. In 2017, the city was bidding for the 2024 Olympics against Paris, but agreed to instead host the 2028 Games. It was part of a then-unheard-of bid process that rescued the IOC from the reality that cities were becoming reluctant to absorb the cost and effort to bid for and host the Summer Games. Olympic watchers viewed the return of softball and baseball for 2028, along with the introduction of flag football (with help from the NFL) as changes that maybe only Los Angeles could've pulled off.
Los Angeles Times
13 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Israel announces a settlement that critics say will effectively sever the West Bank in two
MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank — Israel's far-right finance minister announced approval Thursday of contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a Palestinian state by effectively cutting the territory into two parts. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich boasted that the construction, which is expected to receive final approval later this month, could thwart Palestinian statehood plans. It came as many countries, including Australia, Britain, France, and Canada say they will recognize a Palestinian state in September. The construction on a tract of land east of Jerusalem named E1 has been under consideration for more than two decades, and is especially controversial because it is one of the last geographic links between the major West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem. The two cities are 14 miles apart by air. But once an Israeli settlement is completed, it would require Palestinians traveling between cities to drive several miles out of their way and pass through multiple checkpoints. 'This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,' Smotrich said during a ceremony on Thursday. 'Anyone in the world who tries today to recognize a Palestinian state — will receive an answer from us on the ground,' he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not publicly comment on the plan on Thursday, but he has touted it in the past. Development in E1 was frozen for so long largely due to U.S. pressure during previous administrations. On Thursday, Smotrich praised President( Trump and U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as 'true friends of Israel as we have never had before.' The E1 plan is expected to receive final approval Aug. 20, capping off 20 years of bureaucratic wrangling. The planning committee on Aug. 6 rejected all of the petitions to stop the construction filed by rights groups and activists. While some bureaucratic steps remain, if the process moves quickly, infrastructure work could begin in the next few months and construction of homes could start in around a year. The approval is a 'colonial, expansionist, and racist move,' Ahmed al Deek, the political adviser to the minister of Palestinian Foreign Affairs, told the Associated Press on Thursday. 'It falls within the framework of the extremist Israeli government's plans to undermine any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state on the ground, to fragment the West Bank, and to separate its southern part from the center and the north,' al Deek said. Rights groups also swiftly condemned the plan. Peace Now called it 'deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution' which is 'guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed.' The announcement comes as the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement in an interview on Tuesday that he was 'very' attached to the vision of a Greater Israel. He did not elaborate, but supporters of the idea believe that Israel should control not only the occupied West Bank but parts of Arab countries. Israel's plans to expand settlements are part of an increasingly difficult reality for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as the world's attention focuses on Gaza. There have been marked increases in settler attacks against Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns and checkpoints that choke freedom of movement. There also have been several Palestinian attacks on Israelis during the course of the war. More than 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and obstacles to peace. Israel's government is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Smotrich, previously a firebrand settler leader, has been granted cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future independent state. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and claims it as part of its capital, which is not internationally recognized. It says the West Bank is disputed territory whose fate should be determined through negotiations, while Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Zwigenberg and Lidman write for the Associated Press.
Newsweek
14 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Bryson DeChambeau Admits Underestimating Jon Rahm After LIV Golf Showdown
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Jon Rahm nearly clinched victory at LIV Golf Chicago last weekend, falling just one stroke short in a three-man playoff against Dean Burmester. The Spanish star fired a final-round 69 to finish at 9-under, tied with fellow countryman Josele Ballester, while Burmester clinched the win with a clutch birdie on the 18th. With nearly 40 days remaining until the Ryder Cup, Rahm's form couldn't be peaking at a better moment. He currently sits second in the LIV Golf individual standings with 196.16 points, trailing only Joaquin Nieman. Though Rahm hasn't claimed a LIV title this year, his consistency has been remarkable. The Legion XIII captain has 13 top-10 finishes. But not everyone saw this coming. As LIV Golf shifts to Indianapolis for its season finale at The Club at Chatham Hills, Bryson DeChambeau offered a candid admission about misjudging Rahm's dominance. WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA - AUGUST 16: Jon Rahm of Spain hand shakes Bryson DeChambeau of the United States after finishing the 18th hole during day one of LIV Golf: Greenbrier at The Old... WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA - AUGUST 16: Jon Rahm of Spain hand shakes Bryson DeChambeau of the United States after finishing the 18th hole during day one of LIV Golf: Greenbrier at The Old White Course on August 16, 2024 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. (Photo by) More "I kicked him out in Dallas, I remember doing that, so I was like, yes, not a top 10," DeChambeau shared with a grin during the Wednesday conference. "But his feat of not finishing outside 11th place his entire career is quite honestly one of the best feats I've seen in a long time." DeChambeau, currently third in the LIV Golf standings, has had a strong season himself, winning in Korea and posting 11 top-10 finishes. Yet he acknowledged that chasing Rahm and Niemann has felt like a losing battle. "I've played some solid golf, not my best, but really solid, and I've got no chance to win," he stated during the same conference. "It's really impressive. The level of competition they (Jon Rahm & Co.) bring to LIV is out of control." The "Break 50" YouTuber also acknowledged Niemann's dominance, highlighting his five wins but reserved special admiration for Rahm's relentless consistency. "What they're doing is great for LIV, it's great for golf," he expressed during the pre-tournament conference. "And honestly, I think whoever wins... it's going to be an awesome feat and a historical year for either one of those individuals." As the Saudi-backed club's final regular-season event begins Friday, Rahm and Niemann will battle for the individual title, while DeChambeau eyes a podium finish. More Golf: Paige Spiranac Makes Emotions Clear Amid Tommy Fleetwood's All-Class Moment
