Beijing (AP) – Ski jumping coach Heinz Kuttin looks back on his time as a trainer in China with mixed feelings. “I had to do training programs that I didn’t do with Austria’s national team – they always wanted more.”
“They wanted to work, work, work. So I said: I can’t reconcile that with my expertise,” said the 51-year-old Austrian, who is now the jump coach for the German Nordic Combined team, the German Press Agency. For China, Kuttin worked from 2018 to 2020 as a coach of the women’s team.
“It wasn’t easy for me because I had to get to know this system first. That was also the reason why I quit. This structure and politics, I don’t get along with my way as a coach. Basically, I understand it, but for that takes years,” said Kuttin. At the Winter Games in Beijing, he “under no circumstances expects anything” from China’s ski jumpers, the coach added. “Unfortunately, our performances were better than now. That says a lot.”