The congress in Belgrade delivered a dramatic upset as Alexander Ospelt, a 45-year-old sports administrator from Liechtenstein, edged out the sitting president Johan Eliasch by 65 votes to 64 to become the new head of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). The defeat ended Eliasch’s turbulent four-year tenure, which had been marked by sharp disputes with national federations over commercial rights, competition calendars, and his own unconventional leadership style.

Eliasch, a British-Swedish billionaire who first took office in 2021, had been nominated for a second term not by his native Sweden but by the Georgian ski federation—an indication of his frayed relations with the European skiing establishment. On the day of the vote, a powerful bloc of traditional alpine nations, including Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, and France, as well as the Nordics and North America, lined up against him, according to sources in Belgrade. Even the Swedish federation, whose secretary-general described the result as good news, is understood to have swung behind the challenger.

In an immediate reaction, a visibly disappointed Eliasch congratulated his rival but then turned his fire on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), claiming without providing evidence that it had tried to sway the outcome. “I heard that the IOC tried to influence the result of today’s vote, and we must stand strong against this, because we are an independent organisation,” he said, as reported by Swedish television. The allegation added a new layer of intrigue to what was already a fraught election, which had seen three other candidates withdraw earlier in the year.

Liechtenstein media and Swiss press reports have since focused on a chance encounter the night before the ballot, when Eliasch was seen dining with Marco Büchel, a well-known former World Cup downhiller from Liechtenstein and now a respected FIS official. The meeting, though perhaps innocent, may have crystallised opposition: Büchel is close to Ospelt and holds considerable sway within the small Liechtenstein delegation. Ospelt, who joined the FIS council only last year and previously led his country’s national federation, ran on a platform of restoring trust and collaboration.

The change in leadership comes at a delicate moment for FIS, which must navigate potential IOC tensions over event control and revenue-sharing while unifying a membership that was deeply polarised under Eliasch. Analysts in London and Zurich note that Ospelt’s success was less about his own profile than about a widespread desire to reset the federation’s governance. His immediate challenge will be to reassure commercial partners and prove that a consensus candidate from a tiny alpine state can steer an increasingly globalised winter sports body.