Industry News
The Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team has announced key staffing changes for the upcoming 23/24 season across both the men’s and women’s teams.
“I am really excited about the coaching staff we have now. We’ve made key changes bringing in proven, world class coaches that will further our strides towards a high performing culture and drive performance.”
Anouk Patty, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport
Men
New to the 23/24 season, Mark Tilston will be leading the charge as head men’s alpine coach. Tilston has a decorated background in coaching: He coached the national teams for Scotland (Snowsport Scotland) and Britain (GB Snowsport), served as performance director of GB Snowsport, was head coach of the GB Snowsport at the Vancouver Olympics and most recently served as the men’s head coach for Alpine Canada from 2020 to 2023 where his athletes had tremendous success at the Olympics, World Championships and the World Cup circuit.
In addition to Tilston, Burkhard Schaffer will be heading to the men’s speed team as head coach. Burkhard has been coaching at the highest level for 25 years, leading World Cup speed teams in Austria, Slovenia and Canada. The Slovenian born speed coach is no stranger to the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team—he was assistant coach with the women’s U.S. World Cup speed team last season.
“Mark and Burkhard will be excellent additions to the men’s team. Their history speaks for itself and we are excited to see what success comes to our team with these additions.”
Patrick Riml, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Director
Florian Scheiber will also be joining the speed team as an assistant coach. Scheiber comes with recent World Cup speed experience as a member of the Austrian national team for eight years. He won a Junior World Championship medal in giant slalom, the Europa Cup overall title in 2009 and finished in the top 25 for super-G and downhill World Cup standings in 2013. He most recently served as assistant coach for the Austrian World Cup women’s speed team.
Women
Rudi Soulard will be joining the women’s World Cup tech team as an assistant coach. Soulard joins the organization with a long list of experience including his most recent stint as the head slalom coach for the French women’s team. In his coaching experience, Soulard saw multiple World Championships medals, Olympic medals and globes. Soulard is not new to the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team, having held the position of head men’s tech coach from 2008 to 2010.
Alex Hödlmoser will join the women’s speed team team as head women’s World Cup speed coach. Hoedlmoser previously worked with the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team as a coach on the Europa Cup team, the World Cup downhill team, head coach of the women’s program, and head coach for Lindsey Vonn through the years of 1997 to 2019. He was poached back to his home country Austria in 2022, but is returning to Team USA where he has coached for 25 seasons and been voted coach of the year four times in total.
Daniel Dejori will also be re-joining the women’s speed team as assistant coach, after serving in the role from 2018 through 2022. Dejori most recently served as assistant coach with the Austrian women’s World Cup speed team.
“We have very strong leadership and a tremendous amount of experience on the women’s team. Together with the existing staff we are in a great position to achieve our goals and build a winning team.”
Patrick Riml, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Director
As previously announced, Karin Harjo has taken over as Mikaela Shiffrin’s coach, following Mike Day’s sudden departure from her personal team. Harjo is another senior Canadian staff member Team USA managed to snare for the 23/24 season along with Mark Tilston, who had been the Men’s Head Coach at Alpine Canada.
