Is now a reality

Unbelievable? An Austrian as Seleção team manager

Michael "Mike" Pircher

(Bild: GEPA; ServusTV)

An Austrian as team manager of the Brazilian Seleção (national team)? Sounds unbelievable. But it is a reality in the sport of skiing.

Because Michael "Mike" Pircher, who once guided Marcel Hirscher through his picture-book career, has been looking after ski samba star Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (24) since the summer. He has turned his back on Norway and now competes for Brazil, his mother's homeland ...

But anyone who believes that Pircher is sitting on the beach in Rio, enjoying a caipirinha and pulling the strings from there is, of course, very much mistaken. "The cocktail on the Copacabana is only available in spring," says Pircher with a smile in an interview with the Krone.

"You won't get a cocktail on the Copacabana until spring"
The Styrian pulls all the strings in "Team Brazil" (travel, planning, equipment, training), and thanks to his experience, basic structures are slowly being established.

 Braathen probably even stronger in the slalom
In the summer, Pircher spent seven weeks at a training camp in New Zealand with Braathen, among others, and his fourth place at the opening RTL in Sölden immediately exceeded all expectations. And made big ski headlines for the first time in Brazil!

Now it's off to Levi via Munich and Rovaniemi. The first slaloms of the World Championship winter await in Finland on Saturday (women) and Sunday (men). Although Braathen is probably even stronger in the slalom (slalom World Cup winner 2022/23), they are keeping their heads down and aiming for the top 15 ...