The Polish Biathlon Association revealed on Saturday that Adam Kolodziejczyk has become the new coach of the country's men's and women's biathlon teams, after both Germany's Michael Greis and Anders Bratli of Norway resigned from their jobs.
"The board approved changes in the training staff of the Polish national teams for the next season. The current team coaches Michael Greis and Anders Bratli resigned from their positions. Their duties will be taken over by Adam Kolodziejczyk," the association announced via their official website on Saturday.
The main goal for the new coach is to secure qualification for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
"Taking over the national team one year before the Olympics is certainly quite a challenge. I will talk to the athletes. I have to work on the development of the entire training plan and the process of building the training staff," Kolodziejczyk was quoted as saying by the official site of the Polish Biathlon Association.
Greis took charge of the Poland women's national team coach in May 2019. He led the team to two gold medals at the European Championships, but weak individual starts in the top-level competitions prompted the German coach to abandon the job.
"Looking honestly at our results, it turned out that we were not able to live up to our own expectations. We spent a very intense time together, full of emotions. I appreciate the girls' contribution to our cooperation and I wish them all the best," the German said.
Bratli, who was the coach of the men's team, also decided that leaving was the best solution. The Norwegian has been working with biathletes since spring 2020. He did not manage to improve the results of the men's team, which is currently far from qualifying for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
"As a coach, I take full responsibility for the team's performance, and this season wasn't good enough. I thank the fans for their support and apologize to them for not meeting their expectations. I did my best to make progress, but at the moment it turned out to be too little. I would like to thank the Polish Biathlon Association for the opportunity to work with the team," Bratli concluded.
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