Toni Innauer: “The time of foreign coaches in Austria is over”
When on Friday and Saturday in Seekirchen on Lake Waller near Salzburg a meeting of sports officials of the Austrian Ski Association was held, Toni Innauer reflected on the past and the future.
“We are in front of a new beginning, after we've been busy rebuilding for the past two years”, Innauer said in an interview.
Ss.com: Even, if it hurts, please tell, How do you rate the last season??
Toni Innauer: “It doesn't particularly hurt me, because we have achieved a large part of the goal, winning a medal at the World Ski Flying Championships and at the Junior World Championships, and at the 4-Hills-Tournament and the World Cup we were also in the spotlight.
Definitely, the season finale was not worthy of the ski nation, who we want to be. Andreas Widholzl, Martin Höllwarth, Florian Liegl did not keep pace with the competition, and there were several disagreements with coach Hannu Lepistö.
It was not possible, to convince him of our strategy. the fact is: two, three athletes maintained a high level – Höllwarth i Morgenstern, Kofler conditionally -, many others remained on the same stretch”.
Ss.com: Everything will be different now. New coach, new staff, new goals.
Toni Innauer: “In all training groups we have new employees and interesting personalities, such as Richard Schallert, Alexander Pointner's assistant. We are about a new beginning. It will be interesting to see, how the new people will cope and how the cooperation between the groups will work. It's clear to me: time, where we employed trainers from abroad – first in 1997 of Mika Kojonkoski, and later Hannu Lepistö in 2002 – passed. We have our own great potential, young people, who may not have big names, but a lot of commitment, knowledge and regularity.
I want to provide a strong foothold before alone for two, three years, I will probably leave the Austrian Ski Association”.
Ss.com: What do you think about the departure of Heinz Kuttin and Stefan Horngacher to Poland?
Toni Innauer: “I briefly regretted it. But later it dawned on me, that was a fact, which is quite normal in professional sports. For this it is already necessary to say, that for Horngacher the position of the main trainer, how it was delivered, would not really be considered. Alexander Pointner was
already, unlike Horngacher, responsible for the B-team and everything became clear at once. What is important: he went this way of his own free will”.
Ss.com: A glimpse into the future: what are the goals for the season 2004/05?
Toni Innauer: “The goal of our tutors must be professional and enthusiastic work. All players must support this as best they can. The athlete's goal must be to improve over the season 2003/04. We must use our full potential.
facts, that the Austrians for over 1000 days did not win a medal, they did not win any competition of the tournament, or that we have not won the World Cup since the peak of Andreas Goldberger's career, they don't see it in those terms, which affect the psyche of the jumper. This is rather a category for the statisticians of our sport. Of course in a year 2005 in Oberstdorf we also want to fight for medals at the world championships, in both team and individual competitions. But we do not declare any purpose, this will be requested of us anyway”.
Ss.com: Will Andreas Goldberger still perform on the ski scene??
Toni Innauer: “He is currently in the national team, but I will decide in July. We don't know that yet”.
Ss.com: You have always been known for innovating ways. What path will you go this year??
Toni Innauer: “We will work on mental training, but most of all we want to use factors, that have not been used in the last two years, multiply the integration again in our system. Introducing methods of strength training, diagnosis and management was already initiated by Harald Pernitsch at the University of Innsbruck under Kojonkoski; these funds were not used by Lepistö. We will be using them more again”.
Ss.com: The next question is about the new rules. Do Austrian jumpers have to “work out” weight, to achieve the required Body Mass Index 18,5?
Toni Innauer: (laughter) “NO, we don't have this problem. I think, the new rules are very good, because they will if possible, that the playing field will be leveled. The human body in ski jumping belongs to the flight system, it must relate to the rules. Weight limits are no longer just for boxing and judo, but also in gliding or Formula One 1. In ski jumping, we follow the optimal path, we are not looking for absolute weight categories, but relative. As the father of a young jumper, I don't have to worry, that my son, practicing this sport he must or should starve himself to death. And I am of course
happy with it”.