Matthias Schenk New Austrian Freestyle Sports Director

Matthias Schenk takes over the sporting management of the Asutrian Ski Association freestyle department on May 1st.

Born in South Tyrol and residing in Innsbruck, he has already made a name for himself in the freestyle scene of skiers and snowboarders. First as an active athlete and then as the mastermind of the World Cup on the Alpe di Siusi (ITA) and as an organizer of competitions at different performance levels. The 31-year-old has always paid special attention to the youngsters by hosting rookie cups.
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With the move to the ÖSV, Schenk, who previously worked full-time as an architect, is now taking over a department that is attended by a number of world-class athletes such as the snowboard Olympic champion and world champion Anna Gasser, the medal winners at this year's World Championships in Bakuriani (GEO ), Avital Carroll (2 x bronze in moguls) and Lukas Müllauer (silver in freeski big air) as well as Matej Svancer.

"The profession of architect is very time-consuming, but freestyle sport has never let go of me and accompanied every free minute. Some people will certainly ask why an architect should now be the sporting director of this new department. The architectural profession and freestyle sport have more parallels than you might think. This includes spontaneity, creativity, attention to detail, but also sensitivity, a great sense of responsibility and the constant development of new ideas, concepts and strategies. I am very much looking forward to the tasks and challenges ahead, which I can tackle with a strong team. I also believe that every conscious change brings with it great development potential," explains Matthias Schenk.

Targeted use of synergy effects from snowboarding and ski freestyle

“We are very pleased to welcome Matthias Schenk as sporting director of the new freestyle department at the Austrian Ski Association. In recent years we have had great results in snowboard and ski freestyle as well as on the mogul slope. There were four medals in these disciplines at the World Championships in Bakuriani alone. We want to continue this success in the future. For this purpose, it is important to push the youth work with regard to the home World Cup 2027 in the Montafon and to use synergies between the individual disciplines. With programs for young people in mass sports such as the "Austria Snowpark Days", synergy effects have already become clear through the merging of snowboard and ski freestyle sports," emphasizes Roswitha Stadlober, President of the Austrian Ski Association.

“The reason for this restructuring is clear: we want to continue to push and develop freestyle sports as best we can in the years to come. The bundling of synergies is sometimes one of the first steps. We are fully convinced that we can set further positive signals and accents for the development of the sports,” says Roman Kuss , former sports director for freeski and now division manager for association development and sports coordination.

“The installation of a freestyle department was necessary in order to remain competitive and successful in these disciplines. It is crucial that the division will also be strengthened in terms of personnel with this realignment and that questions of sports infrastructure and training and competition planning will now fall under one area of ​​responsibility. This restructuring is an important and trend-setting step for the further development of freestyle sport," emphasizes Christian Galler , Sporting Director of Snowboard Austria.