The new Swiss ladies head coach Mauro Pini has committed Frenchman Lionel Finance as coach for the technical disciplines. The 43-year-old former World Cup ski racer was head coach of the Canadian speed racers during the last four years, and has had considerable success during that time: Erik Guay won the discipline standings in the super G this year; Guay's team-mate John Kucera is the acting downhill world champion and Manuel Osborne-Paradis stood on the podium several times (9 podium finishes, 3 of which victories) during Finance's tenure. Previously, Lionel Finance officiated as ladies Alpine head coach at the French Ski Federation from 2002 to 2006.
Dierk Beisel, chief competition at Swiss Ski is delighted about the high-profile commitment: "Lionel Finance is a coach who has dedicated his life to sports and excellence. We are convinced that he is the right person to achieve the expected further development in the technical field."
Lionel Finance confirmed that he was looking forward to the new challenge in the Swiss ladies team: "It is important to me to manage and support the athletes to enable them to achieve their ambitious goals in sport." The two-time Olympic medalist (Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994) intends to also achieve a goal with Swiss-Ski: In 2014, Swiss-Ski is supposed to be at the start with a successful technical team at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Finance has a large piece of work to do: Last winter, the Swiss ladies tech team placed in the top 15 only once in giant slalom and never in slalom.
Which position the existing technical group coach Reto Nydegger will hold, has not yet been decided. The specific groups and coaches assignments in the ladies team are not definitely determined yet and will be announced in the coming weeks.
Additional information may be found here: www.swiss-ski.ch
