Ester Ledecká’s coach Tomáš Bank is New Head of Alpine Racing at Kästle

Since re‑entering the Alpine Ski World Cup in 2019, Kästle has quickly established itself. As one of the smaller brands on the circuit, it has already celebrated major successes. Last winter, Jan Zabystrán’s Super‑G victory in Gröden marked the company’s first World Cup win in the men’s Alpine category. To continue this path of success, Kästle has appointed Tomáš Bank, a professional with many years of World Cup experience.

Tomáš Bank is closely connected to international alpine ski racing. After his own career as a racer, he worked for many years alongside his brother Ondřej Bank and was part of the era in which the Czech Republic achieved its only men’s World Cup podiums — until Zabystrán’s recent success. Since 2016, Bank coached Ester Ledecká and played a key role in her achievements at the Olympic Games, World Championships, and World Cup. After many years as Ledecká’s coach, Bank now wanted to take on a new challenge.

Although Tomáš never achieved national team performance as a competitor, he enjoyed skiing and wanted to stay in it. The role of coach offered an opportunity to extend his sports career. At first, the Banka boys were a bit of a strange pair with minimal experience. However, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City showed that Tomáš was serious about coaching and that he had the brains for it. He easily learned foreign languages, was well-versed in organizational matters and, what is very important, he knew how to orient himself with the people in the management of the World Cup. Tomáš's development copied Ondra's. The higher Ondra rose, the more Tomáš improved as a coach.

In his new role as Head of Racing, he will remain deeply involved in ski racing and pursue ambitious goals with Kästle: “I want to continue the successful path of Kästle Racing over the past years. We need to focus on providing the best support for our athletes. One important action item will be to improve our ski testing so we have all relevant data on each pair of skis produced. This will allow us to match the same level as the best brands in the World Cup. I’m looking forward to the cooperation with Rainer Nachbaur in terms of ski development.”

CEO Markus Weeger added: “We are very happy to have gained Tomáš for the Kästle team. His many years of experience and his reputation in the ski racing circuit are a major asset to our racing team. We value his calm, analytical approach and attach great importance to his strong communication skills in dealing with athletes in order to further develop ourselves as a team in a holistic way.”