The Austrians have tabbed native born Slovenian speed coach Burkhard Schaffer as the new leader of its men's downhill team, effective immediately. The federation announced today (April 17) the signing of a three year contract with the 46-year old coach.

“I am very happy to have the chance to return to work with the Austrian federation,” Schaffer said. “I would like to make sure that we have a good cooperation within the group and that we actually reach the goals we define for ourselves. The pressure in Austrian is especially high, but given my long coaching experience I can deal with that.”

Schaffer replaces Andreas Evers who recently accepted a position with the US Ski Team. Head Austrian men's coach Mathias Berthold said he was happy to have secured what he said was the ideal candidate to replace Evers. “I am very happy that we could find a solution with the coach I wanted. Burkhard Schaffer has both international experience and (he) understands our Austrian system very well,” Berthold said.

Austrian Sports director Hans Pum said Schaffer possesses “ ... sufficient experience, is very competent and knows all the downhills around the world. I am convinced that he will master the upcoming challenges with the home Worlds 2013 at Schladming, the Olympic Games in Sochi and the Worlds in the US. I wish him all the best for his new tasks.”

Schaffer was World Cup speed coach in Slovenia 2009-2012,  Europa Cup coach in Norway 2008-09, and Austrian men's slalom coach in Austria 2006-2008. He was men's head coach in Canada from 2001-2006 and was Austrian women's speed coach prior to that.

Also announced was tha naming of Thomas Trinker as head women's Europa Cup coach. He succeeds Bernd Brunner who also moved to the US Ski Team.

Burkhard Schaffer photo by Gepa