The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has extended its partnership with TikTok and outlined its new content strategy as it looks to boost engagement with younger fans and capitalise on the increased interest in winter sports ahead of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

TikTok’s role as official FIS entertainment partner has been expanded to nine competition accounts and the first-ever global #wintersport posting campaign as FIS looks to build on a record-breaking previous season that saw FIS content surpass 400 million views.

In addition, a major focus of the partnership is helping athletes across 141 nations through education, workshops, and access to competition footage to connect directly with fans and grow their personal brands.

“The number one reason fans follow our disciplines is their connection with individual athletes”

Speaking with SVG Europe, FIS digital and innovation director Benjamin Stoll said: “We’ve been able to expand and double down on the collaboration for the current season, which is particularly important for us as it’s an Olympic Winter Games season.

“Every four years, we reach a winter sports audience that we don’t normally access, so this partnership is especially important in helping us engage the next generation of winter sports fans from around the world.”

With the winter sports season in full swing and just seven weeks to go until the start of the Olympic Winter Games, Stoll said the FIS is already seeing record numbers across its digital platforms.

“We’re on track to beat last season’s figures, and growth rates are very strong. We’re also producing more content than ever before, and we can see that the Content Exchange Platform (CXP) is working extremely well.”

The CXP is a hub from where athletes and National Ski Associations (NSAs) download high-quality video material of their events for use on their own social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Others are handled on request, acknowledging that markets such as China and Japan use different platforms.

And, from the start of the current season, the FIS is also enabling them to monetise this content.

“We’re coming from a very fragmented media rights ecosystem, and for the first time we’ve centralised international media rights, including clear and consistent digital carve-out rights as a basis for the Content Exchange platform,” says Stoll.

“We’ve created a digital media rights framework that allows us to distribute this content via our platform to national associations and athletes.”

Another new aspect of the FIS’ content strategy is permission for athletes and associations to film behind-the-scenes content using their mobile phones and for them to use that footage accordingly.

“What we’ve realised – and something I previously showcased in Oslo (at the SVG Europe Winter Sports Forum) – is that the number one reason fans follow our disciplines is their connection with individual athletes. Based on a survey we conducted two and a half years ago, it became clear that we need to make athletes more visible.

“Our challenge in winter sports is that athletes are often wearing helmets and goggles, which makes them less relatable. The more we can enable them to use competition footage alongside their own storytelling and behind-the-scenes content, the stronger the global reach of winter sports will be. This helps build deeper relationships, improve retention, and ultimately grow communities across disciplines.”

TikTok and FIS are also introducing a dedicated programme focused on supporting athletes who use the platform through workshops and educational sessions.

TikTok UK, Ireland, and Nordics head of operations Dominic Burns added: “Winter sports continue to captivate and inspire the TikTok community globally. Our partnership with FIS enables us to supercharge this discovery, by bringing athletes, creators and fans together through competitions, workshops and new content formats; we’re supporting iconic sports like Ski Jumping and Snowboard Park and Pipe to find new audiences all around the world.

“Millions of people come to TikTok to discover something new, so we look forward to seeing how our community responds to this next chapter of Winter sport.”

Save the date SVG Europe’s Winter Sports Forum 2026 will take place 26 March 2026 in Oslo, Norway