Thomas Thurnbichler new head coach in Poland

Thomas Thurnbichler is the new head coach of the Polish Ski Jumping team, the 32-year-old Austrian will be the successor of Michal Dolezal. In the past couple of years, Thurnbichler was with the Austrian Ski Association as an assistant coach.

After the Polish team could not meet the high expectations in the past season, there have been discussions about the future of head coach Michal Dolezal for a while. The three top athletes of the team, Kamil Stoch, Dawid Kubacki and Piotr Zyla, have always wanted to continue working with Dolezal.

Now it was officially announced that Thomas Thurnbichler will leave the Austrian Ski Association for start working with the Polish team.

Mario Stecher, head of Ski Jumping in Austria, explained: 
"After the speculations over the past days I can now say that our assistant coach Thomas Thurnbichler has informed me that he will be taking the position of head coach in Poland next season. We have always been informed about his talks with other associations, we also had various positive conversations with Thomas. That's why his decision now comes as a surprise. But I wish him all the best for the future. The Austrian team is well prepared for this situations and we will announce our coaching staff for next season in due time."

The results of the Polish team last winter:
No World Cup win, three podiums
Kamil Stoch: 1 x 3rd (Klingenthal)
Piotr Zyla: 1 x 3rd (Lahti), 1 x 2nd (Oberstdorf SF)
Dawid Kubacki: Bronze at the Olympics in Beijing
6th place in the Nations Cup with 2321 points, clearly behind the fifth place (Japan with 4077 points)