Robert Mateja joins Czech team as jumping coach
May 11, 2020·Nordic Combined
For the first time in history, the Czech Nordic Combined team will be supported by a foreign coach: Robert Mateja, who has previously worked for the Polish Ski Association will reinforce the team’s staff in addition to head coach Marek Šablatura. Vladimír Šmíd will also remain with the elite team as another assistant coach
Mateja, 45, was appointed by the department's leadership on May 1 and offered a contract for the 2022 China Winter Olympics.
"Improved financial conditions enabled us to take this step. Robert Mateja is the first foreign coach in the modern history of the Czech Nordic combined. From this cooperation we promise to increase the competitiveness of the national team and also that this coach - a ski jumping specialist - will bring a new perspective and experience from a well-functioning jumping system in Poland, ”explains Radek Cikl, Chairman of the Nordic Combined Section of the Czech Ski Association.
The Polish Ski Jumping school is currently one of the absolute world leaders, and the Polish team has also made performance progress on the jumping hills in recent seasons.
“We have been flirting with the idea of strengthening the coaching team for the jumping part for a long time, and we have definitely decided on this solution this year after the end of the season. We were looking for suitable coaching types so as not to disrupt the functioning chemistry in the team and to cope with the financial requirements, so we could not afford an expert from Scandinavia. However, Robert Mateja has long been our main candidate and we agreed with him relatively quickly. He knows our competitors well, he knows their potential, and he likes that we have a wider staff in terms of their participation in the World Cup. What I consider important is that connection with Marek Šablatura and that they have good relations with each other, ”says Tomáš Slavík, Sports Director of the Nordic Combined Section of the SLČR.
A native of Zakopane, Robert Mateja is a former Polish representative in ski jumping. In an era in which the legendary Adam Malysz ruled, he still won the title of national champion five times, competed three times at the Olympic Games (1998-2006), six times at the World Championships (preferably 5th place in Trondheim 1997) and four times at the World Championships in skis. He was the first Polish competitor to cross the 200-meter mark on the ski flying hill in Harrachov in 2001 and then pushed the record to 205.5 m in Planica.
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