In Poland, the national ski jumping team must reorganize. Now, legend Adam Malysz is following up after the upheaval in spring.
In spring, things became turbulent for Poland’s ski jumpers. First, sports director Alexander Stöckl departed after a dispute with Poland’s icon and association president Adam Malysz, then the former top nation also fired coach Thomas Thurnbichler.
Instead, assistant Maciej Maciusiak was promoted and is supposed to lead his aging team back to the world elite in the coming months. Thurnbichler, in turn, has switched to the youth sector in Germany.
Ski Jumping: Legend Malysz Speaks Out
Now, half a year after the upheaval, it’s Malysz who has followed up. In the newspaper Interia , he revealed details.
“A situation arose where this change was necessary,” said the national hero: “I will defend this decision, but I won’t say that hiring Thurnbichler was a mistake. After all, I remember his first season. He was really very good.”
Upheaval in Poland: “The Biggest Problem Was…”
But after that, stars like Kamil Stoch or Piotr Zyla fell into a major slump. Thurnbichler apparently couldn’t find solutions anymore.
“Then misunderstandings arose within the team,” reported Malysz: “This was probably due to the differences between our countries of origin. The biggest problem was communication. The jumpers claimed that Thomas very often changed his opinion. He, in turn, explained this by saying he wanted to react to the current situation.”
Thurnbichler had also reported this to Malysz before the dismissal. According to the association boss, he had complained that “the athletes didn’t talk to him about their problems,” the four-time ski jumping world champion continued: “I suggested to him that he should be the first to reach out.”