COC: Berni Schoedler takes over from Horst Tielmann

Not only FIS Ski Jumping Race Director Walter Hofer, but also Continental Cup Coordinator Horst Tielmann stepped down from his position with FIS at the end of this season.

Tielmann has been the FIS Continenal Cup Coordinator since 2005 and was tasked with coordinating and carrying out the competitions of the FIS Continental Cup Ski Jumping and the Ski Jumping events of the FIS Nordic Junior World Championships.

Now, new FIS Race Director Sandro Pertile presented a high-caliber and highly competent successor for Horst Tielmann: Swiss Berni Schoedler will take over the role from June 2020.

"First of all, I would like to say 'thank you' to Horst Tielmann for his amazing and professional work over the last years. He has been a great Coordinator for the Continental Cup with his style and passion", Pertile said. "At the same time, I'm very happy to welcome Berni Schoedler as the new FIS Ski Jumping Continental Coordinator for the upcoming years. We have known each other since 2002 and we have spent a lot of time together all over the world and in different roles. It has been a challenging process but now we can be happy and proud to announce a very good successor for Horst Tielmann."

Schödler (48), is a renowned Ski Jumping expert, he was very successful as head coach of the Swiss team and is highly respected within the Ski Jumping community. Under his direction, Simon Ammann became double Olympic champion in Salt Lake City, that same year, Schoedler was voted "Coach of the Year" in Switzerland. After this Olympic coup, he celebrated many more successes, especially with Simon Ammann and Andreas Kuettel.

Schoedler remained involved in Ski Jumping until today. Currently, he is the head of Ski Jumping with the Swiss Ski Association Swiss-Ski.

FIS asked some questions to its new Ski Jumping Continental Cup Coordinator:

Welcome Berni Schödler, how do you feel as the new Ski Jumping COC-Coordinator?

Schödler: Gruezi and thanks for the welcome. I feel very well and of course, I'm excited and looking forward to the new job as a member of Sandro Pertile's team.

How easy or how hard was it for you to take this position? Why did you decide to take the job?

Schödler: The reason for me was that I want to further develop and shape the COC series together with the organisers, coaches, and athletes. We were all able to learn a lot and could benefit from the work that Walter Hofer, Horst Tielmann and also Ueli Forrer did for our sport. I also consider it a challenge and I'm very motivated to face it. One of the highlights of this job for me will be the cooperation with the Continental Cup organisers. As a coach, I always witnessed their passion and dedication to host very good events. This great cooperation was a crucial factor in my decision.

When will you officially start?

Schödler: I will start working with the FIS-Team on a 50% basis in June.

What will be the main part of our job?

Schödler: I'm aware that the current situation in Europe but also in the entire world, will present new challenges for us. In addition, there are already well-known challenges like the snow situation and the climatic conditions that our sport has to face. Of course, I will also work on putting together a good competition calendar and have a constant exchange with the FIS staff and the organisers. I'm looking forward to learning lots of new things and shaping the sport as a team. In addition, there is the preparation of the FIS Junior World Championships in Zakopane (POL), which I'm really looking forward to.