World and Olympic ski champion Anna Fenninger

DPA/Vienna

World and Olympic ski champion Anna Fenninger will remain part of Austria’s national team, the governing body OeSV said yesterday, aiming to end a long feud over how much control the ski body has over her trainers and management.
The association was newly angered this week when the independent-minded triple World Champion appeared in a Mercedes advertisement, contrary to the Austrian team’s contract with rival German car maker Audi.
While OeSV chief Peter Schroecksnadel said earlier this week that he felt like Fenninger was “taking the piss” out of him, Fenninger lashed out on Facebook Tuesday, claiming the team had been informed of the campaign and indirectly accusing ski officials of being liars.
Schroecksnadel said Fenninger had apologized in a meeting with him on Wednesday.
“At the end we said: Do we love each other? Yes, we love each other,” he said.
Fenninger would stay with OeSV and accept all its rules, he added.
A break with the team would have cost the 26-year-old athlete up to 600,000 euros (660,000 dollars) per year if she had to pay for her own trainers and staff, he said.
Fenninger won the past two overall World Cups, a gold and silver from the Sochi 2014 Olympics plus three golds, two silvers and a bronze from world championships.
She had seemingly ended her public spat over how much freedom the national team would give her last week, when she reached a deal that would let her retain her own manager.
Klaus Kaercher said Thursday that he would continue to advise Fenninger.
Although Schroecksnadel said this was Fenninger’s decision, he offered that the ski association could take over her management, like it does for its other racers. “I will help Anna,” Austria’s ski chief said.
Schroecksnadel presented himself as the victim in the dispute, telling reporters that he had to go to hospital in the past days because the dispute had caused high blood pressure.
However, fans sided with Fenninger rather than the Austrian ski chief.
Her Facebook post, in which she criticized that “everyone has to dance to the tune of one single person,” has received 109,000 “likes.”
US racer Mikaela Shiffrin also sent her support.
“I have admired your skiing for years but with the most recent news, I must say I admire you just as much for the strength you are showing during this time of struggle while you advocate for your rights and for the rights of all ski racers,” she wrote on Facebook.