Windisch as biathlon coach, Olympics 2026 & Co...

To ensure that this happens, the South Tyrolean winter sports association FISI wants to create the conditions for this from now on. It is an ambitious program that the board of the South Tyrolean winter sports association has set itself. Markus Ortler, president since June 2019, outlined it clearly. Olympics 2026 Markus Ortler: “The Olympics obviously affect us, especially from a sporting perspective. We will have many South Tyrolean participants. The aim is for them to be in the best possible condition. That's why we started a project where potential Olympic candidates receive special support. They are not based on our national squad athletes, but on South Tyroleans who are already in the A or B national team. We offer them additional services that go beyond working with the national team. This is support in mental, physical and technical terms, but also in terms of material. We want to approach each athlete individually. We have created a requirements profile and that needs to be implemented. In biathlon, for example, we have a number of young athletes who are suitable for this.” According to Ortler, around one million euros are available for the 2026 Olympic project thanks to sponsor support. South Tyrolean Olympic athletes 2026 Markus Ortler: “It is impossible to determine a possible dream number. The fact is that we have strengthened financially as a regional association in the last 3 years. We are now prepared for the challenges of the future. This affects the regional association, it also affects all the actions that we want to undertake with our clubs. That's why we put the Olympic project mentioned in the hands of coordinator Christian Thoma, who will work with us in the long term. Thoma will also be the new coordinator for the state alpine skiing squad. He inherits Thomas Valentini, who is moving to FISI Milan and will be involved in coaching training there.” Cross-country skiing problem Markus Ortler: “We have had obvious problems in this discipline for several years: biathlon has clearly overtaken cross-country skiers, especially here in South Tyrol. The aim is to provide more support to the clubs in order to make cross-country skiing more interesting again for young people. This will not be an easy task.” Few ski crossers, no snowboard crossers Markus Ortler: “The regional association is in principle open to all disciplines. There are no special clubs in this country that promote and train these two disciplines. South Tyrol is a country with a great winter sports tradition, so so-called new disciplines have little space. We can only provide support if an ex-skier switches to ski cross and then needs help with the new Olympic project. The same applies to snowboard cross, where the main focus is clearly on the parallel snowboarders.” Natural track tobogganing: still an Olympic chance? Markus Ortler: “For the last 4 to 5 months I have dealt almost exclusively with this discipline and have had countless conversations. The fact is that the International Luge Federation FIL has withdrawn its originally negative opinion regarding the inclusion of natural track sledders in the Olympic family. A positive one was submitted later, with a reason: the luge athletes must not lose a single quota place. In my opinion, the prospects do not remain rosy. Regardless of whether natural track tobogganing becomes Olympic or not: there will be races on natural track as part of the 2026 Olympics, which will then take place as demonstration competitions. If they are not organized by the FIL, then by the FISI Südtirol.” Dominik Windisch becomes a biathlon coach Dominik Windisch is now a trainer in the South Tyrolean regional association. © APA / BARBARA GINDL

Markus Ortler: “Yes, that’s fixed. Dominik Windisch will be a coach for the state biathlon squad and will also look after specially selected athletes. We sat down with him at the Italian Championships in Martell and quickly got on the same wavelength. We are also in contact with other athletes who retired this year. The names are not ready to be announced at this point. In addition, we want to install several performance bases in the future and also involve the country's three sports schools in Mals, Vipiteno and Val Gardena more closely. We want and need to get them on the same boat.” Upcoming new elections Markus Ortler: “New elections are required after each Olympic cycle. We haven't dealt with it so far because creating the sporting programs for the next season was our absolute priority. The Alpine skiing state squad has already completed 4 weeks of training on skis. The earliest date for new elections would be the end of July. But it will be more like September. The reason is that calculating the voting rights of individual clubs is difficult. It is a system that is calculated based on the number of FISI members, sporting successes and the organization of events. It takes a lot of time until the procedure is completed.” Events Markus Ortler: “With the FISI golf tournament, the winter sports festival in Auer in September, the summer and winter clothing from one of our sponsors and the racing calendar presentation, we have also positioned ourselves well in the non-winter period. A new addition is the Bike Challenge, which we are organizing from July 1st to August 31st. It's about a virtual bike ride up the Stelvio Pass, which top athletes tackle and where clubs, officials and especially companies can compare their performance. Just this much: Clubs can win one-week training stays, while companies can 'win' top South Tyrolean athletes for their own activities.” 6500 members is the winter sports association FISI Südtirol with its 122 member clubs. Last winter, 110 races were held in 10 different racing series (5 in alpine skiing, 2 in natural track tobogganing, one each in biathlon, cross-country skiing, snowboarding and freestyle). There are 9 state squad members in 180 different disciplines.

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Windisch as biathlon coach, Olympics 2026 & Co...

In 3 years and 8 months the time will come: Then the Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina will take place in 2026, with the biathlon in Antholz. That's just one aspect: South Tyrol's winter athletes should play a leading role at the home Olympics.

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