ProXCskiing talked with Peter Kiene, the Ski-Willy Marathon Team Austria’s Pro Team Director, who voiced the news:

“Ski-Willy, the cult sporting goods retailer from Ramsau am Dachstein (Austria) and the first address for nordic sports in Central Europe, will continue to be our main sponsor, but to be competitive, we are looking for some more sponsors. We will also get a new look – stay tuned!”

According to Peter Kiene, despite having a sub-par performance in Season XII, the Pro Team had exemplary achievements in long-distance races in Central Europe.

“Team Austria looks back on a difficult racing season. Our Ski Classics engagement this year was not very successful. We had a lot of absences due to illness and injuries. Furthermore, our Russian female athlete Varvara Prokhorova was prevented from starting from March,” and continues:

“Nonetheless, our athletes achieved 22 podiums in long-distance races in Central Europe, including nine victories, such as Ganghoferlauf 50km Classic (a Ski Classics Challengers event) with Jakob Milz.”

For Season XII, the Pro Team would be back to its base and will have mainly German-speaking skiers on its roster.

“Back to the roots is our motto for the next season, which means we will mainly rely on German-speaking athletes. We just got some interesting inquiries from promising athletes, and details will come shortly.”

Ski-Willy Marathon Team Austria is also looking at the youth long-distance skiing development and has two solid names for the upcoming years.

“With Anna Schmidhofer and Johannes Kuchl, we have two top young talents in the team. This winter, both competed for the first time in Ski Classics races and scored good points. Both should be able to fight for the podium in the Youth competition in the near future,” concludes Peter Kiene.