Lisa Eder returns to Austrian ski jumping setup with Manuel Fettner integrated into team

Background to the standoff

The breakthrough came after Thomas Diethart, the coach of the Austrian women's ski jumping team and a former Four Hills Tournament winner as an athlete, sketched out a new framework. According to reporting, Diethart's proposal was the catalyst that made Eder's return feasible and cleared the way for Fettner's role in the surrounding set-up to be redefined rather than excluded.

The shift is significant for the Austrian Ski Federation (ÖSV), where Eder and Fettner had been a controversial pairing in the past. Bringing both back into the operational picture suggests the federation is willing to absorb short-term political cost in exchange for what officials believe is the strongest competitive configuration ahead of the upcoming winter.

Compliance concerns had been a particular flashpoint. Liegl's spring remarks framed the issue as not merely financial but also regulatory, hinting at internal governance reviews that had to be resolved before any reintegration could be formalised. The new arrangement appears to address those points without requiring either side to abandon its earlier position publicly.

Compliance and budget concerns

For Eder personally, the move ends a lengthy period on the sidelines of the national team. Her competitive schedule had been effectively frozen while the political and procedural questions around her return were argued out within federation channels.

Fettner's role, by contrast, is being framed as a supporting one within Diethart's wider coaching structure rather than as a return to a formal position. That nuance allows the federation to present the change as a technical adjustment to its training set-up rather than a reversal of Liegl's earlier verdict on personnel questions.

Implications for the Austrian set-up

The news has rippled through the broader ski jumping circuit, where the Austrian set-up is closely watched as a benchmark. With the Four Hills Tournament and the next Winter Olympic cycle on the horizon, observers in the so-called "Skisprung-Zirkus" see the reshuffle as a signal of intent from Austrian officials.

Both Diethart and federation leadership have so far declined to spell out every operational detail of the new arrangement. What is clear, according to the sources cited, is that Eder's competitive comeback and Fettner's reintegration are now formally linked, and that the framework Diethart proposed is the basis on which both moves proceed.