Out of nowhere, top Austrian ski jumper Lisa Eder announced her retirement last week. Differences between her and the Austrian Ski Association were responsible for the surprising end to her career. However, ÖSV sports director Mario Stecher did not want to let them and the association rely on them.
“We haven’t come up with a green solution,” Lisa Eder recently explained to “ORF”. “The ÖSV has its reasons, and that’s understandable. It doesn’t work any other way for me. The circumstances have been making it difficult for me for a long time. Ski jumping itself would be fun for me, but the surroundings don’t make me that happy.”
The sticking point was that her fiancé, the old champion Manuel Fettner, who also recently retired from the World Cup, was not integrated into the coaching team. That is said to have been the express wish of the 24-year-old, who finished fourth in the overall World Cup last season. ÖSV sports director Mario Stecher believes such a demand is absurd.
Ski jumping: ÖSV boss reacts clearly to Eder’s request
“If you make demands and want the ÖSV to pay them, and only then will I continue, then it stops with me,” he raged in an interview with the “Tiroler Tageszeitung”. In principle, they were open to offering Fettner a place on the coaching staff – but not with the women, as a romantic relationship within the team would violate the rules defined by the association.
If this regulation didn’t exist, then “everyone could come along with their partner and want him to be a coach. That’s simply not possible,” Stecher added: “If Manuel Fettner, for example, wants to start as a coach for the men, that wouldn’t be a problem, then you can talk about it. But not in the same group.”
The 40-year-old Fettner announced his retirement at the end of the season, just a few weeks before his partner.