The spring has brought some changes in the coaching ranks of many Cross-Country Skiing teams. Here is a summary.
In Finland, Magnar Dalen is the first-ever foreigner to be appointed to the post of head coach of the Finnish Cross-Country team. Norwegian by birth, Dalen (42) has lived in Sweden for the last 15 years and was the head coach of Sweden's cross-country ski team from 1998-2002. He will be supported by assistant coach Eero Hietanen and Vesa Mäkipää who takes on the new position of sprint coach.
In Norway, Ã…ge Skinstad replaced Bjœrnar Haakensmoen as head of the Norwegian Cross-Country team as of April 1. Egil Kristiansen will coach the ladies’ team while the position of the men’s coach is reportedly still open. In Russia, Alexei Prokurorov is the new coach of the ladies’ team while in Slovenia, Ivan Hudač (SVK) has been appointed to the position of head coach for Cross-Country.
In Sweden, Per-Ã…ke YttergÃ¥rd (58) replaces Anders Bergström as head of Nordic Disciplines in the Swedish Ski Association. While Inge BrÃ¥ten and Thomas Alsgaard continue in their previous coaching roles – albeit Alsgaard will be based in France where he can spend more time in his newly-found interest in wine – Ola Rawald (37) will be leaving his position as sprint trainer to take up a new challenge as coach for the Chinese national team. There he will work at the side of Per-Erik ‘Peken’ Rönnestrand, who continues into his second year as head coach.
Swiss-Ski has named Barbara Broger (54) the successor of Michel Amtzenberger as head of Cross-Country while Giachem Guidon (44) was named head coach of the Swiss Cross-Country team. In Austria, Franz Gattermann, previously Nordic Race Director at Fischer, and Bernd Raupach from the German training center Ruhpolding form the main coaching staff at ÖSV.
In the US, Pete Vordenberg has moved up to head coach, replacing Trond Nystad who departed after four years, and Chris Grover has been named sprint head coach replacing Vidar Loefshus, who is returning to Norway.
Jochen Behle, Marco Albarello, Dave Wood, Jean-Pierre Burdet and Mati Alaver are reported to continue in their previous roles with the German, Italian, Canadian, French and Estonian Cross-Country teams, respectively.
Source: FIS
