Former World Cup racer Ingemar Walder has joined the Austrian national alpine snowboard team as the new Head Coach.

The signing of the 38-year-old from Innervillgraten who has been controlling the fate of the Swiss pros over the last two years takes over duty from Bernd Krug who will concentrate on the on-course coaching of the athletes from August 1st on.

In addition, the shake-up of the staffing also includes getting Anton Unterkofler on board.

The 33-year-old from Salzburg had retired from competition after placing fourth in the 2015 season's finals in Winterberg, Germany and finished his training as a massage therapists last year – a role he will take over from late summer on whilst also serving as technical coach supporting the established duo Bernd Krug and Manuel Kruselburger.

“It's amazing if you can integrate former World Cup athletes into a coaching team,” said Christian Galler, Head of OESV Snowboard.

“Ingemar Walder will take over the leading position for the alpine snowboard World Cup group with Anton Unterkofler also joining in as assistant coach and massage therapist.

I'm very happy to work with this team over the next couple of years which will feature not only two world championships but also the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea.”

Ingemar Walder said: “Austria has the biggest potential in alpine snowboarding. It's an honour and challenge likewise to work together with such a strong team.

Our goal is, to prepare all athletes the best possible way so they can live up to their potential when it counts. This also includes the up-coming worlds in Spain next March which we will attend to bring home some medals.”

Also former Head Coach Bernd Krug is positive about the new structure within the coaching staff.

“Due to the massive organisational work, the coaching work with the athletes on the slope got too short. The new composition of the staff is the perfect solution. I'm more than confident that it will have a positive outcome on our athletes,” Krug stated.

While the coaching staff for alpine snowboarding got re-structure, everything remains the same in the other World Cup disciplines.

Tom Greil will remain in charge for the sbx World Cup racers with Stefan Hanser being responsible for the Europa Cup team.

Christian Scheidl (WC) and Dominik Huber (EC) will keep on coaching the freestyle team while Mario Rantschl will also keep on carrying out the plan of gearing up the EC parallel team members for higher challenges.

Source: fis-ski.com