The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced significantly the activities of all the FIM Commissions. In the “Commissions Update” series Commission Directors will explain how they have modified their working methods during the extraordinary times and how they foresee the future. In this article the director of the FIM Trial Commission CTR, Thierry Michaud explains how the CTR has been able to overcome challenges caused by the pandemic.
Like all the sports commissions that deal with the organisation of their championships also the CTR has been facing several challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Chronologically, our 2Play Promoter and the FIM had to end the X-Trial season before the end of the Championship. Fortunately, five out of the seven scheduled events took place and we were able to validate a beautiful FIM X-Trial World Championship, Thierry Michaud says.”
“The FIM is the promoter of the TrialGP and has had to act and take many decisions to safeguard its Championship in the interest of its partners and participants. We were forced to cancel the Team Events (Trial Des Nations) and the Japanese TrialGP for obvious transport and economic reasons. We decided to organise some events in Europe. Finally, four events will be organised. We have made considerable efforts to take into account the interests and possibilities of all to allow a championship, certainly smaller, but within the reach of different situations and people, volunteers, professionals or amateurs, that we have in Trial.”
The CTR has tried to use the extraordinary time as efficiently as possible.
“Beyond the massive collaborative work for our championships, we have successfully completed the Section Observers’ Training project. This is an enormous job which has been done in partnership with a member of our committee and the FIM administration. Another very ambitious project was a huge amount of construction work in terms of the Trial History project and its long-term ambitions. Many FIM services such as IT, Communication, Legal and Trial of course, in collaboration with external service providers defined this concept.”
The challenging year has included lots of balancing and working with the best possible compromises.
“We had to find compromises to preserve the very different interests of all, using diplomacy, our federation partners were very involved.”
“We also redesigned our TrialGP website, implemented new registration processes and improved its potential uses.”
Thierry Michaud has started to plan next year with clear plans.
“We will start on a foundation that takes up both the good habits of the past while building on the experiences of this year. This year’s work has also been done to preserve and prepare for the next season. We hope that all the parties have understood and appreciated the enormous efforts made by the FIM to satisfy everyone’s needs.”
Despite the difficulties the pandemic brought, Michaud has been happy to see how everyone have joined their forces and worked for the same goal.
“We have worked hard to save our championship this season, maybe also our discipline. It would have been much easier for the FIM to cancel its Trial Championship, but the FIM has demonstrated its motivation and that it is driven above all with passion for motorcycling sport and the fight to move forward in a reasonable, responsible, but positive way!”
FIM Communications
