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Recent FIS News
Below you will find a listing of recent FIS News
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Alpine Skiing: New season, new faces
The start of May also signifies the start into the new season - summer preparations are getting under way for most Alpine ski teams with some of them beginning their first dry land trainings with new coaches. Overall, this spring has only brought about a few changes in the coaching ranks compared to last season after the Olympic Games. What follows below is a brief summary of the main changes in the coaching structures of the World Cup teams that have come to the attention of the FIS Newsflash:
Never change a winning team was the slogan for Germany. The Alpine World Cup teams will start into the 2011/2012 season with proven and tested coaches: Thomas Stauffer continues as the head coach for the successful ladies' team whilst Karl Heinz Waibel remains the head coach of the men's team.
In Austria, the Austrian sports director Hans Pum and the two athletic directors, Mathias Berthold (men) and Herbert Mandl (ladies) announced some changes for the upcoming season at the group coach level: Michael Pircher follows Christian Höflehner as the men's technical group coach with the 35-year-old Styrian taking over the lead of the slalom team. The other two group coaches on the men's side remain with Andreas Evers in charge of the men's speed team and Andreas Puelacher for the giant slalom & combined group.
On the ladies' side the departure of Jürgen Kriechbaum opened up the opportunity for Florian Winkler to return to his home country. The 35-year-old Tyrolean formerly led the men's speed and combined group and, after a one year intermezzo in Sweden, now takes over as a group coach for the ladies downhill / super-G team. Günter Obkircher remains group coach for slalom and giant slalom.
The Swiss already announced the departure of the men's head coach Martin Rufener during the past season. Osi Inglin is taking the reigns as the new Swiss men's coach after seven Rufener years, following five years as head coach of the sport high school in Davos. Prior to that Inglin was a coach with Swiss-Ski from 1993 to 2002, and again in 2005/2006. The 42-year-old's career also included a spell as head of the racing department for Stöckli and coaching in the U.S between 2002 and 2005.
The French Ski Federation (FFS) has appointed Nicolas Burtin as new coach of the ladies speed team replacing the former downhiller Laurent Chrétien, who will now be coaching the Europa Cup team that includes Estelle Alphand (daughter of the well-known French ski legend Luc Alphand), among other young talents.
In Italy, the new ladies' and men's head coaches will be Raimund Plancker and Gianluca Rulfi, respectively. They replace former Alpine director Claudio Ravetto, who led the Italian team to a great success at GAP 2011. Meanwhile, the Swedish ladies' teams have a new head coach in Fredrik Steinwall, who previously worked with the Swedish Alpine men's team for several years.
Overseas, Patrick Riml will return to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association as Alpine Program Director after three seasons with Alpine Canada. Riml is reported to take over all aspects of the alpine program from grassroots development programs through the national team. A native of Soelden, Austria, Riml served as U.S. ladies' Head Coach for seven seasons prior to joining the Canadian staff.
In some countries, negotiations with the coaching teams are still underway and new appointments will be announced in the upcoming weeks. For the latest updates, visit www.fisalpine.com.
Contributed by Sandra Kühni