Maze’s Olympic coach breaks ties with the Slovenian

By Published On: April 16th, 2014Comments Off on Maze’s Olympic coach breaks ties with the Slovenian
Tina Maze at the Sochi Olympic Games. GEPA/Andreas Pranter

Tina Maze at the Sochi Olympic Games. GEPA/Andreas Pranter

As first reported by the Italian publication Race Ski Magazine, Tina Maze’s most recent coach who led her to two Olympic gold medals and seemed to salvage her World Cup season after taking over midway through the winter will no longer work with the Slovenian racer. Mauro Pini, the Swiss coach who joined Maze’s staff in January, was only contracted through the end of the 2014 season. Despite his success with Maze, he will not continue to work with the skier next season who won the 2013 overall title after accumulating a record-breaking 2,414 points but who finished 2014 ranked fourth with only 964 points.

Maze’s coach in 2013, Livio Magoni, departed at the end of last season to take over the Italian women’s team. He was replaced by Walter Ronconi, who Maze dismissed in the middle of the season and replaced with Pini. Now Pini leaves amidst rumors that he may accept a position with the Italian team, possibly replacing Magoni who is being courted to return to Team to aMaze in a grand carousel of staffing rotations. Whoever is hired to work with Maze will become the fourth coach she has trained with in a single year.

It was my decision,” said Pini regarding his departure from the team. “Tina wanted me to stay. But for me it was clear from the beginning that this should be only a temporary commitment for me,” he told the Ticino News.

Maze’s boyfriend, Andrea Massi, remains head coach and team manager, and he informed the press that they do not yet have a known replacement for Pini heading into the 2014-15 season which features the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at Beaver Creek, Colo., in February.

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.