Olympic champion Eric Frenzel kicked out of WhatsApp group
Eric Frenzel will still be in the spotlight in spring 2023. The career of the three-time Olympic champion is coming to an end. On the other side of the year, he is head coach of the German combined athletes. His new role brings him some disadvantages, but he is not entirely unhappy despite the risk of frost.
Eric Frenzel has packed his thick hat, after all, freezing is an inevitable part of his new job. "Standing up there on the tower in the cold temperatures - I'm still dreading the thought," says the 34-year-old ahead of his debut as head coach of the German combined athletes. For the first competition on Friday in Kuusamo (from 11 a.m./Eurosport), the forecast is for temperatures in double figures below zero, plus the biting wind.
Until spring, Frenzel was still jumping himself - and was quickly allowed into the warmth. Now, however, the successor to national coach Hermann Weinbuch will have to stand at the hill and cross-country ski run and lead his former colleagues. A change of role that will not be easy. On his first day as a coach, he felt "like counterfeit money", he revealed in the "Ski happens" podcast.
Because Frenzel has hardly any coaching certificates and wants to finish his business studies first, he is operating as a "leading discipline coach" for the time being. But there is no doubt that the three-time Olympic champion is the new boss. "Someone has to wear the hat," says the Saxon, and that is now him.
"The name Frenzel must not disappear"
This means a change for his former colleagues. Olympic champion Vinzenz Geiger, for example, recently had to kick Frenzel out of the WhatsApp group, which is only intended for athletes. "Details are discussed there that the coaches aren't allowed to know," said Geiger with a wink. Frenzel's appointment is of course a win-win situation for all sides, he added.
Three-time World Championship runner-up Julian Schmid, who is also regarded as Germany's greatest hope for the new winter, has a similar view. "It's important for the combined in Germany that the name Eric Frenzel doesn't disappear from the scene," says the man from Oberstdorf. He is hoping for "new input" from his new boss.
What Frenzel wants to change
Frenzel wants to deliver that. He wants to "modernize a few things", he revealed, such as performance diagnostics. Communication will also take place more at eye level in future. As a novice coach, Frenzel can also rely on his experienced colleagues Heinz Kuttin and Kai Bracht - and, if in doubt, on Weinbuch. "Hermann has said that I can always ask him. I've already done that," says Frenzel.
In any case, the timing for his debut is perfect: because there is a rare "interim winter" without the Olympics or World Championships, Frenzel can try things out before the 2026 Olympics come into focus. Whether his sport will still be an Olympic sport after that remains to be seen. Frenzel also sees his involvement as a "sign" of how important the traditional sport still is.
But first it's up to Kuusamo, off to the coaching tower. And when Eric Frenzel thinks about it, freezing instead of flying is not such a bad thing. "Here and there I would still like to have the feeling of jumping," he said in the podcast: "But with my current physical condition, it's perhaps a good thing that I'm now on the tower and not on the hill."
Despite his new role as head coach, Eric Frenzel still struggles with the cold temperatures, reminiscing about his days of Nordic skiing. The three-time Olympic champion will continue to have an impact on the sport, as Olympic champion Vinzenz Geiger recently acknowledged when he had to kick Frenzel out of their WhatsApp group, reserving it for athletes.
Source: www.ntv.de
