The Austrian Ski Association announced the new biathlon owner trainer on Thursday. The nation should lead a local legend back to the world leaders.
The gentlemen of the Austrian biathlon team will in future listen to Ludwig Gredler’s command. The ÖSV announced this on Thursday. Gredler follows the previous head coach Vegard Bitnes, who was released after the season finale in Oslo because of the ongoing sporting crisis.
Gredler himself started in the World Cup in the 1990s and celebrated great success. In addition to six World Cup victories, the 57-year-old now won two medals at World Championships: Bronze in Single in Osrblie 1997 and Silver in Oslo 2000 over the same distance. After his active career, he worked in various functions, most recently as a assistant coach for men.
Ludwig Gredler is the new head coach of the ÖSV biathlon men’s team
In his new function, however, Gredler does not expect an easy task. After all, the Austrian gentlemen look back on a very mixed season. The 42-year-old Simon Eder, as the best athlete of the ÖSV team, took the 36th place in the overall World Cup. The greater gap to the top of the world is to be significantly reduced again by the 2028 home World Cup in Hochfilzen.
Biathlon in Austria? “Know that the golden times are over”
“We know that the grapes hang up, but it is about having a way to draw a way how to bring young people back to the expanded world top in the near future-I expect that too. In the direction of 2028, we want to put a men’s team that can get involved again among the top 6 nations,” said ÖSV sports director Mario Stecher.
Nevertheless, Gredler is looking forward to the challenge and pleads for a close exchange between the World Cup team and the second training group: “It is top priority to take the fifth place in the World Cup back and to take one or the other young athletes step by step to the top 20 in the World Cup. We all know that the golden times are over at the moment.” Therefore, it is now a matter of “persistent a common thread”.
According to information from the Kronen-Zeitung , Gredler are available in his top group: Eder, whose future has not yet been finally clarified, Fredrik Mühlbacher, Fabian Müllauer, David Komatz, Magnus Oberhauser and Patrick Jakob. In addition, ex-biathlete Christoph Sumann was installed as the new sporting director a few weeks ago.