After three seasons as the Swedish men’s coach, Swiss Thomas Stauffer has moved to Germany to take over the German women’s coaching position vacated when Mathias Berthold return to his native Austrian to coach the Austrian men’s team.

Stauffer, 41, takes over a team that boasts of Olympic gold medalist Maria Riesch and will host the World Championships this coming season at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Stauffer’s men’s team collected the first men’s alpine Olympic medal for Sweden in 22 years when Andre Myhrer collected the slalom bronze medal. Myhrer also tallied two World Cup podiums last season, but did not record a win.

Stauffer left the Swedish federation saying only that he was accepting another challenge.
The next day the German federation announced he had been signed to a two year contract.

Wolfgang Maier, the alpine director for the German federation said the women’s team would benefit from Stauffer’s “network” of contacts within international racing.