ALPINE SKI. Nadia Styger has announced her retirement in a press conference on Tuesday at her home resort of Sattel (SUI). Following a serious injury sustained in Canada last November, Styger missed the entire last season. "The recovery is going relatively well but in small steps only," said Styger.

Nadia Styger (SUI), Downhill, Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Bansko 2009

The 32-year-old athlete indicated that after discussions with her closest support circles, she had come to the conclusion that now is the right time to retire. "It was always clear to me that I wanted to be 100% fit from the first start next season. For that goal, I would need to be able to train without pain which is not the case at this moment." Based on today's status, Styger is not sure if she would be able to ski at full speed next season. "The frustration would be too much if I could not give it my best, and I am not so young any more that I could just rely on a comeback the season after. This was not an option for me."

Nadia Styger can look back on a long and successful career. After the Junior Worlds bronze medal in the downhill in 1997 she won four World Cup races and scored a total of 6 podium finishes in 176 World Cup starts. Her first World Cup start took place on 27th February 1999 in Are, the last one and the last podium on 12th March 2010 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (SUI). She also won a bronze medal in the nations team event in Are 2007 and recorded a fourth place finish in the Are downhill as well as a 5th place finish at the Olympic downhill in Torino 2006 and a 6th place finish in Vancouver 2010 in the super-G.  In 2006 and 2010 she finished 3rd in the World Cup super-G rankings.

Her future plans see her opening her own fitness studio in Sattel in September called "stygi-fit-sattel“.

FISalpine.com
Tuesday 28 June 2011

Austrian ladies try out judo

After their men counterparts tried out boxing, the Austrian ladies are getting in shape with judo training.  The third training camp of the season from 27th June until 1st July saw the two World Cup training groups of the Austria Ski ladies' teams gather for the final week of the intensive conditioning block in la pura women’s health resort kamptal. The judo training was designed to help improve their maximum strength, body control and body posture.

Nicole Hosp commented: "The judo training was really cool and a lot of fun, and most importantly, it was a nice change. I am very happy with my progress in training. I am healthy and quite fit at this point. After the injury I had a good start into last season but then it did not quite continue the way I had imagined. The change of equipment has helped me find the optimal package and hope to be able to recover my old strengths again.“

Kathrin Zettel added: "I am currently still training based on my own program and trying to get fully healthy again. As before I continue to have some problems with my hip and that's why complete recovery is my main focus. I am not worried about the start of the season as I am optimistic that I will be back at full power in the winter.“

Elisabeth Görgl said: "The judo training was great training for speed strength, freedom of motion and body control. I think it is very important to teach your body new movements and try out other sports. We learned some moves and throws and it was both exciting and hard. We sweated a lot.“

The ÖSV ladies head coach Herbert Mandl summarized: "We are working hard to provide some variety into the every day training program. I think there were several excercises in today's workout that we can use in our program later on too. I noticed that our ladies were taking this very seriously and find that the training intensivity was good training for skiing from the perspective of aggressiveness as well."

Participating athletes: Margret Altacher, Anna Fenninger, Jessica Depauli, Andrea Fischbacher, Elisabeth Görgl, Nicole Hosp, Michaela Kirchgasser, Stefanie Köhle, Regina Mader, Stefanie Moser, Bernadette Schild, Nicole Schmidhofer, Christina Staudinger, Carmen Thalmann, Mariella Voglreiter, Kathrin Zettel.

FISalpine.com
Tuesday 28 June 2011

Blardone returns to Dynastar-Lange

The Italian giant slalom specialist Massimiliano Blardone has decided to return to skiing Dynastar skis and Lange boots. With 20 top 3 finishes, including 5 World Cup victories, Blardone brings unparalleled expertise to the Dynastar and Lange teams. The 32-year-old racer used to race on Dynastar before moving to Salomon for last season, a season that did not bring the hoped successes. Blardone finished a disappointing 30th at the World Ski Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) and only gathered one podium finish during the 2010/11 season.

FISalpine.com
Tuesday 28 June 2011