Swiss-Ski director fired
The head of Switzerland’s competitive ski programme has been fired after just eight months in the job because of “differences of opinion” with the governing board.
Denis Vaucher, who led the Swiss to their most successful season last year, was let go after the seven-member committee said trust in him had suffered.
“Further cooperation is no longer possible,” Swiss-Ski said in a statement. Roger Fehr, finance and administration director, added the organisation regretted “parting ways after such a short time”.
Vaucher started the job on January 1, 2010, just weeks before skiers Carlo Janka, Didier Défago, Dario Cologna, Simon Ammann and Mike Schmid amassed an impressive nine Olympic medals, six of them gold, at the Winter Games in Canada. He had previously served as the director of the Swiss Ice Hockey League and the CEO of Loeb, a popular department store group.
Gian Gilli, head coach of the Swiss Olympic team, told the newspaper Blick that the organisation would not suffer while it searched for a new director.
“The Swiss-Ski committee has at least had the courage to realise it was a mistake [to hire Vaucher] and to react quickly,” Blick quoted Gilli. “When it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
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