Austria brought in an Olympic legend to clean up the biathlon national team. Now the conflicts are even greater. The head coach is furious and resigns in protest.

Austria brought in German coaching legend Wolfgang Pichler to clean up and reorganize the national team after years of internal turmoil. It has turned into a failure.

Pichler’s hiring was supposed to change everything and make Austria a real contender against Norway and France. 

Instead, it has only intensified the conflicts. 

Also Read: Retirement on hold – Takes over national team

Open dispute in leadership

Since Pichler took over, no one seems to agree on anything anymore. Austrian biathlon is now in the midst of an open organizational crisis.

According to Sports Info, there are now four powerful leaders in the national team with completely conflicting interests battling it out:

Wolfgang Pichler was hired to restore order in the organization and end the internal unrest. He has completely overhauled many aspects and halted several of the management’s plans. 

Sports Director Christoph Sumann has seen his proposals criticized and sidelined by Pichler, which has further unsettled the coaching team.

Reinhard Gösweiner, the successful coach behind stars like Dominik Landertinger and Christoph Sumann, is now furious and unwilling to continue. He has announced his resignation.  

Coach Felian Schubert is unclear about his role anymore. It varies depending on the plans: head coach according to Sumann, assistant coach according to Pichler.

Two completely different visions

The core of the conflict is simple: Pichler wanted Gösweiner to lead the recruit team, with Schubert as assistant. Sumann had planned something entirely different, where Schubert would be responsible for the men’s elite team, while Gösweiner would work with the women’s elite team.

The result was that coaches and other support staff were informed at the last minute about which teams they would be responsible for, in a situation marked by total confusion.

Gösweiner resigns

Reinhard Gösweiner has now informed the Association that he does not wish to continue.

The departure of the successful coach, who has been instrumental in building much of modern Austrian biathlon and is behind stars like Dominik Landertinger and Christoph Sumann, will be yet another setback for a team that sought to build on experience and continuity.

Complete confusion among athletes

The immediate consequence is total confusion among the athletes. 

While the leaders argue, they still do not know who will train them or what the overarching plan is for the next season, just before summer training begins.

Read More: Austrian biathlon teams for season 2026/2027

Long track record

Wolfgang Pichler has an extensive track record as a biathlon coach. 

From the late 1990s until 2011, Pichler was the man behind the success stories of stars like Magdalena Forsberg, Anne Carin Zidek, Björn Ferry, and Helene Ekholm. 

From 2011 to 2014, Pichler was head coach of the Russian women’s biathlon team. In 2015, he returned to Sweden and was there through the World Championships in Östersund in 2019.

Leading up to the 2026 Olympics, he worked with the Bulgarian national team.

REGISTER HERE AS A MEMBER