What makes the dominant Swiss males’s velocity group so profitable? Pace Workforce Head Coach Reto Nydegger talks about his teaching type, the Swiss group, and what he realized from the Norwegian Attacking Vikings in an unique interview with Ski Racing Media. Swiss stars Marco Odermatt, Franjo von Allmen, Stefan Rogentin, and Norwegian legends Aksel Lund Svindal and Kjetil Jansrud share their insights.
Great Success
The Swiss males’s velocity group earned titles, medals, victories, and podiums greater than some other nation through the 2025 World Cup and World Championship season. The group embraced a robust group spirit, and younger athletes stepped up and challenged their seasoned teammates for the highest spots.
The group’s 2025 downhill and super-G statistics are noteworthy:
Three World Championship gold medals, one silver and two bronze medals
Downhill and super-G World Cup globes and 5 out of six doable velocity self-discipline World Cup podium spots
27 World Cup race podiums, together with 10 victories and two podium sweeps
Odermatt, von Allmen, Rogentin, Alexis Monney, and Justin Murisier recorded these outcomes. The Swiss males additionally delivered spectacular performances in big slalom and slalom, not included above.
Resemblance to Norway’s Workforce Tradition
Along with their performances, many admire the Swiss males’s present camaraderie and powerful group spirit.
Seeing Swiss athletes embrace one another by means of success and hardship displays the Norwegian group tradition. The Attacking Vikings construct their success on shut bonds, teammates serving to one another, and laborious high quality work.
Nydegger has additionally served as each nations’ males’s head velocity coach.
Subsequently, Ski Racing Media sought to find out what makes the Swiss group so profitable this season and what Nydegger might need realized in Norway and introduced with him to Switzerland.
Athletes Are the Key
Nydegger spoke with Ski Racing Media through the males’s World Cup weekend at Kvitfjell, Norway, in March. Earlier that day, the Swiss males claimed their second World Cup downhill podium sweep of the season: von Allmen captured the victory, Odermatt completed second, and Rogentin took third.
What makes the Swiss group so profitable this yr?
With a pleasant smile and optimistic presence, Nydegger mentioned, “It’s just a little little bit of the whole lot.
“The massive half is the athletes.”
He additionally highlighted that the teaching employees plans forward to fill the hole within the nationwide group when seasoned star skiers finish their careers, and he famous the work being performed in golf equipment and ski gymnasiums.
“I feel there’s good work on the bottom, which I don’t have a lot to do with. They do a superb job within the golf equipment and the ski gymnasiums and so forth,” he mentioned.
Constructing One Workforce
Historically, there have been numerous factions inside Swiss nationwide groups. Nydegger emphasizes his work to unify the group.
“I attempt to usher in that we should not have ‘my group’ and ‘your group’, however fairly this philosophy that we actually go for one group. I feel that helps them; they don’t ski higher however they really feel higher in the event that they know everyone is working only for success, to win races, and methods to win races. I realized so much about this in Norway, to have this focus. What do it is advisable win races? It’s not simply luck if you win a race. There’s a lot behind [being victorious], and I noticed that particularly in Norway. I realized that from the athletes.”
We’ll return to this theme with enter from Norwegian ski legends Svindal and Jansrud. However first, here’s what Odermatt, Rogentin, and von Allmen shared about coach Nydegger throughout transient interviews with Ski Racing Media within the Kvitfjell end space.
Odermatt: On the Identical Degree
“He’s such a pleasant man. We will have plenty of enjoyable with him, however he can nonetheless be severe and present us methods to ski quick,” a cheerful Odermatt mentioned.
The world’s finest male alpine skier of current seasons joined the Swiss World Cup group through the 2018-19 season. Since then, he has earned a tremendous 4 World Cup General globes, 9 World Cup self-discipline globes, one Olympic and three World Championship titles, and gained 45 World Cup races.
“I feel we are able to thank him for lots of our success, as a result of what he already did with the Norwegians was actually spectacular. And now, what he did with our group can be very spectacular, particularly now with the younger athletes, Alexis [Monney] and Franjo [von Allmen]. I feel he confirmed them the quickest and finest solution to ski quick within the downhill World Cup.
“He’s not a coach that appears down on the athletes. We’re all on the identical stage and the identical web page, and that is for certain one thing that helps,” Odermatt added.
Rogentin: Calm and Direct
Rogentin, who completed second within the super-G World Cup standings and earned 4 World Cup podium finishes, in addition to a World Championship bronze in 2025, smiled when requested about Nydegger.
“Initially, he’s a superb man. He’s all the time fairly calm, and I like that. Typically I get nervous, after which I’ve one other one that’s calm, not nervous or anxious,” Rogentin mentioned.
He additionally values Nydegger’s candidness. “He says what he thinks, and generally you want this suggestions.”
To elucidate the group’s success, Rogentin pointed to the aggressive stage throughout the present group.
He additionally famous the change in group members throughout his eight years on the squad — from previous teammates who had been “good skiers and good teammates” to in the present day’s group. Now, “we’re just a little bit youthful, and the actually younger guys are contemporary and have a brand new and completely different mindset,” Rogentin added with amusing.
Von Allmen: A Favourite
Von Allmen, one of many new velocity stars, additionally praised Nydegger: “He’s certainly one of my favourite coaches. He has calmness and expertise. I actually wish to work with him.”
In 2024, von Allmen spoke about his rise—from his residence ski membership to the rostrum in his first World Cup season.
This previous winter, he emerged as one of many greatest stars of alpine ski racing — successful two 2025 World Championship titles, three World Cup races, and ending second within the downhill standings.
“Typically [team results] get higher, and with all of the group spirit, it’s actually cool. We will push one another, and sure, we’ll see how far this goes. Perhaps subsequent yr it’ll be a special nation,” von Allmen mentioned with a smile.
Summarizing Strengths
When requested about his strengths, Nydegger highlighted a number of key factors:
· Staying calm
· Being organized
· Sensing methods to work with particular person employees members and athletes
· Attempting to make the correct selections on the proper second
· Planning all elements of coaching and journey
· Specializing in athlete improvement
He shared experiences from working with athletes: When Lara Intestine [-Behrami] reached her first World Cup podium at practically age 17, Nydegger, as her coach, acknowledged the added stress she confronted. “There was plenty of media, plenty of issues approaching.” He believes this expertise helps him information the present group’s youngest fast-rising star. “Von Allmen — he’s additionally younger and there’s so much coming now. He was a ‘no one,’ and now everyone needs him. I feel I can assist there.”
The Begin
Nydegger constructed his teaching expertise in Switzerland and Norway, after a short stint in Australia in 1999.
In Might 2000, the then-25-year-old started three years of teaching for the Berner Oberländischer Skiverband (BOSV), a regional ski affiliation whose main aim is to help younger athletes.
Subsequent, he spent 10 years teaching the Swiss-Ski nationwide groups — beginning with two years teaching the ladies’s C-team, adopted by 4 years with the European Cup girls’s group.
From Might 2009, he joined the World Cup girls’s group for a yr, earlier than transferring to the European Cup males’s technical group for 3 extra years.Then, in spring 2013, Nydegger left Swiss-Ski and went overseas to seek out new inspiration. A golden chapter adopted with the Norwegian Ski Federation.
Becoming a member of the Attacking Vikings
Nydegger joined the Norwegian Alpine Ski Workforce as males’s European Cup head coach in July 2013. Practically two years later, he confronted a shock throughout an April 2015 coaching camp in Kvitfjell.
When key contributors stepped away, a sudden void opened within the Norwegian World Cup teaching employees. Unaware of this, Nydegger traveled to Kvitfjell together with his European Cup group for the ski federation camp.
“Right here they informed me, ‘Our coaches stop. They determined to focus extra on their household life, and you might be our new [World Cup speed] coach’. It was up right here, from at some point to a different,” Nydegger mentioned, his voice reflecting the thrill and challenges he confronted when he grew to become the top coach for the Norwegian males’s World Cup velocity group in a single day.
“The very first thing I mentioned was, ‘I don’t even know the place to park the automobile in Kitzbühel; I haven’t been there.’ After which they informed me, ‘We’ll let you know what you want’. That was actually…”
The seasoned coach paused for a break up second whereas presumably feeling emotional… or simply trying to find the correct phrases.
“That was, after all, plenty of work for me, however attention-grabbing, and I realized so much. That was actually particular,” Nydegger mentioned when describing the shut cooperation with the Norwegian males’s velocity group. Between 2015 and 2019, he served as the top coach for Svindal, Jansrud, rising star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, and Adrian Smiseth Sejersted, who gained the 2025 World Championship super-G bronze medal.
No Small Process
The sudden transition to steer the profitable Norwegian World Cup velocity group was out of the strange, and the coach-athlete communication with then-superstars Svindal and Jansrud developed right into a particular two-way connection.
Jansrud recalled the scenario: “To return in and take over the duty for the velocity group in Norway was a pretty big process to tackle. We’d had coaches Tron Moger and Håvard Tjørhom. There had been individuals concerned who delivered fairly good outcomes. Then, we needed to discover the following one who might contribute to our group.”
Through the 4 seasons earlier than Nydegger grew to become the top velocity coach, Svindal and Jansrud had gained a tremendous seven of the eight World Cup velocity self-discipline globes.
Moreover, Svindal secured the World Cup general twice (2007, 2009). The 2 had claimed 13 Olympic and World Championship medals over the earlier 10 years. Svindal tallied 24 World Cup victories, and Jansrud, three years youthful, had 10 World Cup victories when Nydegger started as their coach.
In different phrases, Nydegger — whose background got here primarily from European Cup technical groups and one yr with the Swiss girls’s World Cup squad — stepped in to steer some of the profitable velocity groups on the sport’s highest stage.
Particular Necessities
In keeping with Jansrud, the Norwegian athletes already had set expectations for his or her coaches — and themselves — on methods to manage and execute their coaching to attain success.
“I feel he [Nydegger] skilled how we labored as a group and the expectations we positioned on ourselves. We had been very self-driven on the time, however that isn’t essentially unproblematic,” Olympic and world champion Jansrud mentioned with a smile. “He noticed how we labored as a group and adjusted rapidly.”
Nydegger described it as a brand new expertise to have athletes telling him, “That is what we’d like.”
“I didn’t know at first methods to deal with these superstars. They’d gained the whole lot, whereas I used to be a ‘no one’ there. And so they informed me, ‘We wish you to inform us what we do mistaken, that you just inform us instantly. You may also be agency. However we’ll let you know as nicely.’ And that labored,” Nydegger mentioned.
“I like to inform the reality once I see one thing, and I feel that’s necessary with the intention to take the following step,” he added.
“With Odermatt, for instance, it was a bit completely different. He was a Junior World Champion, however he was not a celebrity. He grew up as he joined the [Swiss] velocity group, and he realized methods to ski downhill and super-G in our group. That was a special factor from beginning [in the Norwegian team] instantly the following day with the superstars. In order that enter was necessary for me; ‘We wish you to inform us what we do mistaken.’”
Younger vs Skilled Coaches
Nydegger gained one other expertise he now applies in Switzerland:
“Once I began in Norway, they informed me, ‘You’re a bit outdated’. However I used to be [only] 40 years outdated; I didn’t really feel outdated! Nonetheless, I used to be virtually among the many oldest,” he mentioned with a chuckle.
He noticed that bringing youthful coaches into the nationwide group system and educating them labored nicely:
“They take a younger coach who actually needs to study and turn out to be higher; he’s working for the group. Then, you possibly can convey him into this tradition. It’s a lot simpler than taking an older coach, who tells you, ‘I by no means did that, I by no means did this.’”
Now that he’s again with Swiss-Ski, Nydegger goals to convey youthful coaches into the Swiss group. In his expertise, coaches in Switzerland and Central Europe usually should work their approach up within the group construction for a few years earlier than main a World Cup group, particularly a velocity group.
“I confirmed in Norway that this isn’t that crucial. The group helps you. The athletes aid you in the event you work collectively. I had no expertise on the velocity facet [when starting] in Norway, and Aksel and Kjetil informed me, ‘We’ll aid you; we’ll make it collectively,’ and that was one thing new for me,” the profitable velocity coach mentioned.
Coaches Who Pay attention and Study
“Reto got here throughout as curious and keen to study,” Jansrud mentioned when talking with Ski Racing Media in Kvitfjell.
“You would possibly get coaches who imagine their mind-set: ‘That’s how we do it. It’s my approach or the freeway.’ And there are some coaches who’ve had a superb impact that approach. However, the Norwegian group has primarily all the time had a flat construction. Now we have mentioned, amongst each the coaches’ group and the athletes’ group, through which approach we are able to finest turn out to be the perfect. However, after all, we’ve had very clear roles relating to who’s in cost.”
Svindal described Nydegger as a employee, an skilled coach, and somebody who provides the entire group stability.
“You’re all the time on the lookout for coaches with expertise, however you additionally need coaches which might be a part of constructing group tradition,” two-time Olympic and five-time World Champion Svindal mentioned.
The small Norwegian males’s velocity group — consisting of three to 4 athletes, plus Nydegger and different employees — delivered spectacular outcomes. Through the 4 seasons when Nydegger headed the group, they gained three Olympic and three World Championship medals, three World Cup super-G self-discipline globes, and positioned 13 occasions within the high three within the downhill, super-G, and alpine mixed self-discipline cups. Moreover, the group gained 27 World Cup race victories through the 2016-2019 seasons.
Workforce Working Collectively
When he returned to Swiss-Ski and their males’s World Cup velocity group in April 2019, Nydegger encountered a extra divided construction than in Norway and what we see in in the present day’s Swiss group.
“Once I began six years in the past, it was not like this. It was Beat Feuz right here, then there was Carlo Janka there, and Marc Gisin was right here, so everyone was in his personal little factor,” Nydegger mentioned. The highest racers usually had non-public coaches. “I attempted to convey them collectively a bit.”
He labored to ascertain a tradition much like what he skilled in Norway.
Now, the dynamics have shifted throughout the Swiss males’s velocity group. “All people works for that success, [that’s starting] already within the coaching,” Nydegger mentioned.
Measurement Issues
On account of Switzerland’s better variety of athletes and employees, creating this shared focus throughout the Swiss group was more difficult than it had been with the smaller Norwegian males’s velocity group.
Establishing a setting the place “everybodyreally helps one another is simpler when you may have simply three coaches and two service guys. Right here now we have ten coaches and ten service guys and different employees round,” he mentioned.
The bigger group additionally requires extra group each day. Nonetheless, Nydegger tries to maintain a flat organizational construction. He believes a flatter construction and giving individuals duty has all the time been his teaching type, even earlier than working with the Norwegian group.
Nydegger makes selections and plans for the employees members but additionally assigns everyone duties. One individual is liable for the tools, one other oversees the warm-up, and yet one more checks the slope, he mentioned.
“With that huge group, some do GS within the morning, some do super-G, some must go to the jury inspection, some must do different issues. The flat construction remains to be there, however within the greater group, it is advisable make selections. It’s necessary that that works.”
Planning and Logistics
Nydegger enjoys planning and logistics and views these duties as essential for group success.
“I’ve been within the enterprise for 22 years now. I do know many locations. I do know that the athletes want high quality coaching, not simply ‘one thing.’ We have to deal with security, secure coaching. Logistics can be an element; attempting to remain on the proper place, having good meals.”
Creating the correct surroundings helps athletes carry out their finest.
Holding a Constructive Momentum
Moreover, sustaining momentum all through the season is essential. Nydegger famous that coaches are likely to take it simpler after important occasions like Wengen and Kitzbühel and after this yr’s World Championships, the place the Swiss males’s velocity group was very profitable. Nonetheless, there’s no time to loosen up or ease up on the job.
“I really feel it’s type of my job to kick them just a little bit within the behind and say, ‘Hey, now now we have to proceed with this; we aren’t giving up.’ That has not a lot to do with snowboarding, but it surely’s extra about methods to construct the group and maintain the group collectively.”
In keeping with Nydegger, athletes is likely to be affected if the coaches don’t stay optimistic, although some athletes might deal with it higher than others. Subsequently, Nydegger believes it’s important to keep away from negativity, particularly in a big group.
“It is vital that everyone goes the correct approach, and I attempt to convey that collectively, to maintain the main focus.”
The Significance of Odermatt
Throughout Nydegger’s first years as Swiss head velocity coach, the group shifted from having a number of racers nearing retirement to welcoming youthful opponents. Nydegger inspired the veteran group members to help the youthful ones, as he had skilled with the Norwegian group.
“The final one [to retire] was Beat Feuz, and I all the time pushed him a bit to assist the youthful guys. We didn’t know when Odermatt got here the primary time if he was a celebrity or not, however they type of discovered one another. Additionally, Beat was all the time there to assist a bit when somebody requested,” Nydegger mentioned. He believes Odermatt’s strategy to management mirrors that of Feuz.
Nydegger highlighted Odermatt’s significance to the group and the Swiss federation:
“He’s on this construction and reveals that the construction from the federation works. I feel that’s crucial level. If he went individually, that will be completely different for the entire group. It helps that he all the time stayed, he shared the dryland coach, he shared the conventional coaches, velocity coaches, he shares the whole lot. It actually reveals that he’s a part of Switzerland, from the group, not simply type of a Purple Bull group or no matter you’ll name it.”
Coaches Observe Groups, Not Athletes
Nydegger emphasised making a construction throughout the velocity group that enables racers to transition between the assorted self-discipline groups. He believes a coach shouldn’t comply with a racer who shifts between the velocity and technical groups; as a substitute, the racer ought to come out and in of the velocity group whereas the teaching employees stays throughout the group.
In different phrases, Odermatt, whose base is the nationwide group’s World Cup big slalom coaching group, and different multi-discipline athletes, work with the GS coaches when specializing in GS and with the velocity coaches when specializing in super-G or downhill.
“Ten years in the past, it was not like this in Switzerland. Then, a coach all the time needed to comply with [the skier between teams] as a result of they didn’t belief the opposite group. ‘This group is my group, and that is somebody from one other group’,” Nydegger mentioned.
“The massive step is that Odermatt is a part of the large group. It reveals the younger guys that this huge group is working. We don’t want a non-public coach for this; we are able to win races all collectively.”
Constructing a Workforce
“I actually get pleasure from seeing how they now have success with the Swiss group,” Svindal mentioned.
“ how they behave, and the type of champion Odermatt is, I’d virtually name it the ‘Odermatt impact,’ what the Swiss group is doing. To have somebody like that to construct the group round, somebody that waits for the remainder of the blokes within the end space, doesn’t desire a non-public group however he stays within the group — I feel that’s plenty of credit score to Odermatt. However it’s additionally plenty of credit score to the Swiss ski federation and to the teaching employees, like Reto, for constructing an surroundings that truly permits and motivates Odermatt to be that type of group participant,” Svindal added enthusiastically. “Cash can’t purchase that; it has such excessive worth!”
Svindal, a unbelievable group participant, mentioned: “I feel they do it in a approach plenty of groups can study from and likewise plenty of younger racers can study from.”
Jansrud described his impression of Odermatt as a group participant who needs the group to succeed and who shares his expertise together with his teammates.
“So, they’re copying what now we have been good at on a regular basis,” Jansrud mentioned with a pleasant giggle, referring to the Norwegian custom.
Instructing Younger Teammates
Ski Racing Media shared Svindal and Jansrud’s reward with Odermatt.
“That is good to listen to and one thing I attempt to dwell by and love to do, as a result of I used to be additionally youthful some years in the past and I got here right into a group and was very welcomed by Beat [Feuz]. He actually helped me so much. He confirmed me all his abilities within the downhills, and I might study so much from him. That is one thing I attempt to do to assist the youthful athletes,” Odermatt mentioned.
Odermatt added that he enjoys the optimistic group environment, “as a result of it’s all the time extra enjoyable to share a superb race, podium, victory along with your mates.”
These younger teammates have turn out to be Odermatt’s greatest opponents, Ski Racing Media identified.
“Sure, that’s true,” Odermatt replied with a smile. “I feel that is one thing new, clearly, however I hope we are able to maintain this good environment collectively.”
Make Every Different Higher
What recommendation will Nydegger give to those that coach younger racers?
“If everyone helps one another, I feel that helps probably the most. That’s what I attempt [to teach] within the coaches’ training in Switzerland,” Nydegger mentioned.
“Not everyone is doing the whole lot, however in the event you speak collectively and attempt to make your different coach higher, then you possibly can construct that philosophy.”
Nydegger famous that coaches have completely different strengths. Some are higher at ski-technical enter, others in several areas, and coaches talk in numerous methods. It’s important to make the most of strengths and variations in one of the simplest ways doable.
He shared an instance:
“In our group, the boys can go to the coach they wish to go to. They will select from 4 to 5 coaches. In the event that they like to look at video with me in the present day, they do it with me. In the event that they love to do it with one other coach, they do it with the opposite coach.
“Don’t attempt to maintain [back] the athletes,” Nydegger mentioned, as their experiences and type differ from day after day. This illustrates the significance of communication and dealing in direction of a shared aim throughout the group.
