As reported by the Slovenia Times on Tuesday, Tina Maze’s boyfriend and coach Andrea Massi has been hired by the Slovenian Ski Association (SZS) as a consultant to help with development of its national alpine team during the year Maze is taking off from competition.

SZS announced its hiring of Massi, 48, following a meeting of its Alpine Committee earlier this week in Ljubljana.

The hope of the federation is that the Italian coach will bring his extensive World Cup experience to advise on how to reinvigorate a national team that has seen little success on that level in recent years aside from the glowing achievements of Maze.

Massi has played a role on Maze’s private team which has operated independently of the SZS, and he intends to continue to work closely with her despite his new role and her time away from racing.

“My experience will stay in your country and will not be shared with other teams. But I also intend to help Tina, as she will continue to work on her conditioning and skiing during her sabbatical. It would be too traumatic for her to completely give up skiing,” Massi said.

He will aim to improve the channels of cooperation in the country moving forward.

“Everyone seems to be holding the cards to themselves. Only with cooperation will we be able to get the results which Slovenian skiing was known for in the 1980s and onwards,” he said, according to the Slovenia Times. “My goal is to get all the heads together and not to act as some kind of a know-it-all God.”