Weirather switches to HEAD, hires new coach

2017 World Cup super-G globe winner Tina Weirather announced on Saturday that she has made the switch to HEAD skis. Rumors had been swirling online all week that the skier from Liechtenstein might become a #worldcuprebel after years with Atomic.

“I’m very excited to tell you that HEAD is my new partner for skis and boots!” she posted on Instagram. “The tests went really well, and I’m happy to work with such a professional and amazing team.”

With the move, she joins a dominant group of HEAD athletes like Kjetil Jansrud of Norway, Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. Ski Team, and Lara Gut of Switzerland.  It may seem risky to change equipment after a successful season and right before a Winter Olympic Games, but Weirather weighed those pro and cons.

“Believe me, I’ve spent a long time thinking about all these steps,” her post continued. “I asked myself a lot of questions and balanced the risks as well as all the potential advantages and disadvantages. The most important questions were: ‘How can I be most successful, how can I ski the fastest, how can I evolve the most?’ The answers got clearer and clearer with every day I tested, every conversation I had, and the more I listened to my gut.’

In addition to the ski change, Weirather will have a new coach for the coming season after her former coach Andy Evers took on a new role with the Swiss ski team. Karlheinz Pichler was a coach with the Austrian Ski Association for 12 years and made a name for himself as a coach of the Austrian World Cup women’s tech team and afterwards in the speed disciplines.  He will begin working with Weirather in May.

During his time with the Austrian team, they celebrated a gold medal with Nicole Schmidhofer and a silver medal with Stephanie Venier at the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz.

“We were able to build up a young, powerful downhill group at the ÖSV, but now it is time to start something new, and I am delighted to bring my knowledge and experience to LSV and Tina Weirather to celebrate further success together,” Pichler said.

Here’s the BREAKING NEWS – I’m very excited to tell you that @head_ski is my new partner for skis and boots! The tests went really well, and I’m happy to work with such a professional and amazing team. Also, I have a new coach – Charly Pichler. He’s been in the business a long time and I have a feeling we’ll make a great team. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a WWP internal change, so my new manager will be Christopher Holzknecht. Just invade his email account with all your requests to send me money with no return whatsoever? You guys might be wondering why I decided to make such major changes after my most successful season and the Olympic Games coming up next year. Believe me, I’ve spent a long time thinking about all these steps. I asked myself a lot of questions and balanced the risks as well as all the potential advantages and disadvantages. The most important questions were: “How can I be most successful, how can I ski the fastest, how can I evolve the most?” The answers got clearer and clearer with every day I tested, every conversation I had, and the more I listened to my gut. It took a while, but I’m now 100% convinced I’ve found my dream team: HEAD (new) Tech: Reini Berbig (new) Coach: Charly Pichler (new) Dryland training: Micha Eder / @rotorteam Sports therapist: Fabienne Frommelt Team: Swiss Ski WC 1 Manager: Christopher Holzknecht (new) Let’s get the party started! ???

A post shared by Tina Weirather (@tina_weirather) on Apr 8, 2017 at 4:22am PDT