Race suits, airbags and cut-resistant underwear: the FIS rules, season by season.

Alpine race suits

Under the FIS Specifications for Alpine Competition Equipment, Edition 2026/2027 (rules 1.4 and 3.4, citing ICR 606.2), suits in downhill, super-G and giant slalom, and anything worn under them, must:

• have textile surfaces inside and out;
• not be plasticised or chemically treated;
• have an air permeability of at least 30 litres per square metre per second, with a tolerance of 3.0;
• carry a non-removable "CS 2015" FIS conformity label on the back of the lower left leg.

At race levels 0 and 1 (Olympic Winter Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Junior Championships and Continental Cups), an athlete in a suit without the label may not start (citing ICR 606.2 and 627.2). Protectors may be worn under the suit in all events, and in downhill they may not be built into it.

Airbags in alpine speed events, season by season

Under the 2026/27 text, athletes not wearing an activated airbag protector in speed races and official training for the required competitions are not permitted to start, or are disqualified (citing ICR 627.2).

What the FIS airbag must do (3.5.2.2 and 3.5.2.3)

• trigger on its own, by an algorithm that detects a crash;
• inflate within 200 ms at temperatures between -20 C and +30 C, and stay fully inflated for at least 3 seconds;
• cover at least the shoulders, back or chest;
• be no more than 55 mm thick uninflated;
• include a back protector based on EN 1621-2;
• on a FIS test template using EN 1621 protocols, give a maximum average impact value below 18 kN and at least one value below 6 kN.

The protector carries a non-removable label reading "Conforms to FIS Specifications AIRBAG 2024". Manufacturers state compliance every year and bear sole responsibility for the system's function (3.5.2.4). This racing airbag is a crash-impact protector; it is not an avalanche airbag pack, which is covered by a different standard on avalanche equipment standards.

In ski cross, FIS publishes the same airbag specification (FIS snowboard, freestyle, freeski and ski cross specifications 2026/27, B.11.3), but it is a specification, not a requirement to wear one: airbag back protectors are "highly recommended" in freestyle, freeski and ski cross, and no rule making them mandatory in ski cross was found.

Cut-resistant underwear

Alpine

• 2025/26 edition (3.5.3.4): cut-resistant underpants mandatory at race levels 0 and 1 from the 2025/2026 season, at a minimum of 3 stars under the FIS-DITF test standard, covering from the iliac crest to the top of the boot; strongly recommended at all levels.
• October 2025 revision of the 2025/26 edition: compared with the July 2025 text, the visible change is that the label position is now given for shirts (on the spine, just below the collar) as well as for pants.
• 2026/27 edition (3.5.3.4): cut-resistant underpants mandatory for all FIS alpine events, at the same 3-star minimum and coverage; cut-resistant shirts or full suits strongly recommended.

The star scale (alpine 1.5.3): 1 to 5 stars, with the cutting force rising in 100 N steps from 100 N for 1 star to 500 N for 5 stars, and a minimum uncut length of 200 mm.

Ski cross

New for 2026/27, a cut-resistant undergarment defined by the FIS-DITF test standard 2021 is mandatory in ski cross at race level 1 (World Cup, World Championships, Olympic Winter Games, World Junior Championships and Youth Olympic Games), at a minimum of 3 stars for every body part the suit covers, from the top of the boot to the collar and wrist. FIS strongly recommends covering the neck as well (FIS snowboard, freestyle, freeski and ski cross specifications 2026/27, B.7.5). The star level is set by the weakest of three test directions (0, 45 and 90 degrees), and garments carry a "Conforms to FIS Specifications CRU 2021" label (B.7.4).

The two editions of that document disagree about where this rule sits. The 2025/26 edition prints the same rule, marked "Implementation Season 2026/27", as item 7 of the snowboard chapter. The 2026/27 edition puts it in the ski cross chapter, and its snowboard chapter no longer contains it.

Ski jumping and Nordic combined suits

From the FIS Specifications for Competition Equipment: Cross-Country, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Edition 2026/2027, read from a marked-up copy of the document, so these figures need confirming against a clean copy:

• Material (C.4.3): a five-layer laminate (textile, foam, membrane, foam, lining) with the membrane in the centre, an air permeability of at least 40 litres per square metre per second, and fabrics homologated by FIS.
• Fit (C.4.4.1): men's suits, in ski jumping and Nordic combined, 2.0 to 4.0 cm larger than the athlete's body circumference at any point, and 2.0 to 5.0 cm on the legs; women's suits 2.0 to 5.0 cm larger from armpit to knee, with sleeves 2.0 to 4.0 cm.
• Cut (C.4.2.1 and C.4.2.2): men's suits are made of nine parts; the 2026/27 edition sets out a 13-part women's suit, with a transition period that applies only to the summer 2026 competitions.
• Approval and chips (C.4.5 and C.4.6): suits for the Olympic Winter Games, World Championships, ski flying World Championships, World Cup and Grand Prix must pass FIS technical approval and are marked with encoded NFC chips, 5 for men and 3 for women, registered in a FIS database; athletes get a limited number of suits per season under allocation periods printed for 2026/27.
• Manipulation (C.4.5.5): a suit altered after marking has its chips deactivated, leads to disqualification, and may be referred under the FIS rules on the prevention of competition manipulation.

Other FIS athlete safety rules are on FIS athlete safety rules.