“It was hard to say no”
Olympic ski jumping champion talks about new job
October 8, 2025 – 5:28 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Last year Daniel-André Tande ended his active career as a ski jumper. He has big plans for his new job.
After his successful career, Olympic ski jumping champion Daniel-André Tande remains loyal to his sport. At the beginning of October, the USA Continental Cup team announced that the 31-year-old would take over as coach of the team next winter. The Norwegian will be in charge of the team for the first time at the season opener in Ruka, Finland, in December.
Now Tande, who ended his active career last year, has commented on his new job for the first time. “When they made me the offer, it was hard to say no,” he told Norwegian broadcaster TV2. In the USA, Tande says he wants to help make his sport better known and cites the example of the American cross-country skier Jessica Diggins, who won the World Cup three times.
“I hope that ski jumping can grow as a sport in the USA. That would be cool,” said Tande. “It’s pretty cool to see the impact Jessica Diggins has had on interest in cross-country skiing in the US over the last few years,” the Norwegian continued.
The Continental Cup is the second highest class in ski jumping behind the World Cup. Most of the time, younger jumpers compete there to gain their first experience and to recommend their performance for a place on the World Cup team. The US World Cup team is also coached by a Norwegian: Tore Sneli took over the team in 2023.
During his career, Tande was one of the absolute world class ski jumpers. After his World Cup debut in 2014, he was crowned ski flying world champion four times and won the gold medal with the team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Previously, he narrowly missed out on overall victory in the Four Hills Tournament in the 2016/2017 season.
Tande will also be remembered for his serious fall in Planica in 2021. He was then in a coma for several days. He made his comeback a few months later, but revealed when he retired that he was struggling with mental problems after the fall. “I had to realize that jumping now caused me more fear than joy and I had always said that at such a point it was time to say goodbye,” he said, explaining his resignation.