A legend becomes unemployed

Another coaching dismissal. The first reaction is probably that someone at some football club will have to stop working. Failure is usually the reason. Too few points, danger of relegation, worries about the future. And there it is, the red card. And yet, as can be seen, ejection seats have long been distributed across many sports.

Winter is catching up with us once again, and not just because of the weather. In a phase in which it can be assumed that there is calm and planning is being pushed forward for the next two years, because the Olympic Winter Games are on the program again (Milan/Cortina), one of the most prominent trainers in biathlon has been relieved of his duties. The Slovenian Ski Association has fired Ricco Groß. In May two years ago he took up his job in Slovenia as head coach for women and men. At first glance, one might assume that there was a lack of success here too, as there was no podium finish for Slovenia last winter. But there can be no question of that. Groß, who was nine times world champion and won four Olympic gold medals, who worked as a coach in Germany, Austria and Russia, made the most of little. Slovenia was on the decline in biathlon. Ricco Groß stopped the downward trend. Jakov Fak is Slovenia's best. © APA/epa / FILIP SINGER

The 53-year-old even managed to move from eleventh to ninth place in the national rankings with the men's team led by the experienced Jakov Fak. This means one more starting place for Slovenia in the individual competitions next season and is an advantage that should not be underestimated. And for the women, Anamarija Lampic, a former cross-country skier, has consistently achieved the best running times in biathlon. In the end, she finished 17th in her first full World Cup season. For Slovenia this was more than just a respectable result. She has a good chance of even reaching podium places at some point if she improves her shooting results. Groß worked on that with her. There was also an improvement in this area. It was of little use to him. Although he now knows every meter of the Karawanken Tunnel because he drove from Ruhpolding via the Tauern Autobahn to Pokljuka every week for training, he probably never really felt at home in Slovenia.

Many barriers stand in the way There may also be linguistic reasons for this. Slovenian is one of the most archaic languages in Europe and really difficult to learn. So communication took place mainly in English. Of course, this works in principle, but small bumps can never be ruled out. Siegfried Maze, for example, the French coach of the Norwegian biathlon team led by superstar Johannes Thingnes Boe, has long spoken in Norwegian, as has South Tyrolean Patrick Oberegger, who can also communicate with his Norwegian athletes in their language. Foreign trainers have to adapt extremely to their environment in order to be able to approach their protégés linguistically and very directly.

Jonne Käkhönen, the Finnish coach in the Italian women's biathlon team, who is largely responsible for Lisa Vittozzi's success and return to the world class, is studying Italian diligently every day. But the language barrier is only one aspect. There are also sensitivities within the associations that don't make things easy for trainers from other countries. Ricco Groß had two Slovenian coaches as assistants: former head coach Janez Maric and Bostja Klavzar. Groß told the “Traunsteiner Tagblatt” with a disappointing undertone: “The goal two years ago was to form the team with my two Slovenian assistant coaches. They have been able to learn well over the past time and are now taking the reins.” Patrick Oberegger works in Norway. © Viktor Storsveen

He is not the only coach who has had this unpleasant experience. Markus Fischer from Ruhpolding, who was most recently responsible for the Austrian women's team around Lisa-Theresa Hauser and the increasingly strong Anna Gandler, was transferred. In the future he will be on the men's IBU team. No more World Cup. Former Austrian biathlete Fritz Pinter is also keeping an eye on him as another coach. In Switzerland, German coach Remo Krug was fired at the end of this season. Like Groß after two years, although four were planned. Of course, there are always reasons to terminate agreements or contracts. Sometimes it is personal animosity or simply financial reasons (austerity measures, for example), which can then have serious consequences for those involved. Because unlike the million-dollar football business, coaching jobs in biathlon are rare and are generally assigned two years before the Olympic Games. And where coaches are now being made redundant, there are no new positions and no one is being sought. It's just being restructured.

Seen this way, a football coach is still in a comfortable situation even if the chair is thrown in front of the door, because in this profession a dismissal is usually just a manageable change in the job. Somewhere a door quickly opens again. In biathlon or in winter sports in general and in sports that cannot rely on the financial resources like kickers, a dismissal can become a personal catastrophe. Even legendary status doesn't protect against this.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist (including winner of the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize), book author, long-time editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Eurosport commentator from the very beginning (since 1989) of Eurosport, dedicates his column “Sigi's Peaks” to the entire variety of sports and likes to poach in foreign regions. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes thoughtful or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone.

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A legend becomes unemployed

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