Andrea Rinaldi To join FIS Staff

Andrea Rinaldi (SUI) has been appointed as the FIS Freestyle Moguls and Aerials Race Director and will take over the position in April 2020. At that time Joe Fitzgerald will retire from FIS after reaching the age of 65 and 20 years of fantastic service as FIS Freestyle Coordinator.

Andrea has served in several capacities in the Freestyle Skiing community. Most recently as the Head Coach of the Swiss Ski Moguls Team from 2007-2019 after carrying out the same role with the Italian Moguls Team from 2007-2017. Additionally, he has extensive experience on the organisational side, most notably serving as the Head of Competition from 1998-2019 for various Moguls and Aerials National Championships in Switzerland, Italy and Austria. 

His other professional occupation is in Computer and Information Technology and since 2001 Andrea has been the Computer Science Teacher at the Scola Professionale Sportivi in Tenero (SUI).

Responsibility for the other Freestyle and Freeski events has already been reallocated over the past seasons, with Richie Date (AUS) managing Freeski Park & Pipe events (halfpipe, slopestyle, big air) and JP Barolo (FRA) handling Ski Cross. The overall coordination for both the Freestyle and Snowboard disciplines is being undertaken by Stefan Huber, FIS Events Director.

During the 2019/2020 season there will be an active transition between Joe Fitzgerald and Andrea Rinaldi, who will serve as a technical official at a number of events.

After his retirement from FIS, Joe has been engaged by Beijing 2022 to work as the Freestyle Ski Expert, which will be of great assistance to the Organising Committee and the sport. This will also include a key role with the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships, Zhangjiakou (CHN) 2021. A similar role is also planned with the Bakuriani (GEO) 2023 Championships."