Paolo Bernardi quits his job for the US ladies - Erik Renmaelmo becomes new coach!

Paolo Bernardi quits his job for the US ladies - Erik Renmaelmo becomes new coach!

19/11/2013 21:53

When Italian coach Paolo Bernardi came to the US ladies' team no one expected that he will become a father of American ski jumping successes. Under his two year tutelage as the head coach of the U.S. ladies' team Sarah Hendrickson took the overall World Cup and the World Championship title and the team won the Nation's Cup twice. It seemed that he will lead his team to the victory at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but on Thursday he wrote on his facebook account that he won't lead the American team anymore because of personal reasons.

These surprising news came out only three weeks before the start of the Olympic season of the Ladies World Cup and created a problem for the U.S. Ski Federation. Bernardi's decision shocked most of the fans and people associated with U.S. ski jumping. Faced with this situation Women’s Ski Jumping USA decided to hire a new coach, who will replace Paolo Bernardi in responsibilities of the World Cup coach. The new coach became Norwegian Erik Renmaelmo, who worked earlier as assistant coach of the Norwegian women’s World Cup team. The new traveling coach will work alongside head coach Alan Alborn starting on the 1st of December. Alborn said that the team members know Renmaelmo well and respect him. Lindsey Van, the 2009 World Champion, thinks that both Alborn and Renmaelmo are great coaches and the team fully trusts in them.

In this way one phase of the U.S. women ski jumping ends and another begins. The main goal for the team are the Winter Olympics in Sochi - will this major sports event end successfully for the U.S. team? Soon we will see how this change will affect the Olympic season.

• By Anna Sobol (@AnneAZS)