Cloudflight and Ski Austria expand innovation partnership in biathlon

Cloudflight and Ski Austria expand innovation partnership in biathlon

 

Vienna/Innsbruck, January 14, 2025 – The IT and software company Cloudflight and Ski Austria are strengthening their long-standing, successful innovation partnership. In addition to further developing their joint biathlon app, the partners also want to focus more on data-based performance analysis in the future.  

 

Cloudflight has developed an app for Ski Austria that has been an integral part of the Austrian biathlon team’s competition and training routine since 2018. It will also be used again at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Turin. It enables coaches to digitally record the hit pattern at the shooting range and transmit it in real-time to the support team along the course.

The coaches show the athletes their shot patterns directly on a tablet as they run past. This gives them precise visual feedback on their most recent shots during the race and allows them to understand instructions immediately. The Austrian Ski Association is the only association worldwide that uses such a system and has successfully implemented it in competition.

 

Partnership strategically expanded

Cloudflight will continue to be responsible for the further development and technical support of the existing app. In addition, the partners plan to focus more on data-based performance optimization in the future and to intensify their cooperation.  

For years, extensive data has been collected during the Austrian team’s competitions and training sessions, including hit patterns, physiological data on the athletes, such as nutrition and sleep, as well as weather and other contextual data. In the next step, the partners want to work together to determine how this information can be systematically analyzed and made usable.

“We see great potential in evaluating existing data and deriving specific insights for athletes and coaches,” says Armin Blaha, Head of Existing Business Austria at Cloudflight. “This requires state-of-the-art technology and data analysis—this allows patterns and thus optimization potential to be identified. Here is exactly where we want to start and make data usable for the success of the Austrian team.”

 

Ski Austria and Cloudflight as drivers of innovation in elite sports

Cloudflight and Ski Austria have been working closely together since the first version of the app was released in 2018. The app has been jointly developed over several years and adapted to the requirements of training and competition. The goal has always been to create an app that works reliably under real conditions, is easy to use, and delivers real added value. 

“Our cooperation shows the potential that technological innovations have for top-level sport. The app improves communication and coordination within the team, enabling us to push performance boundaries,” says Christoph Sumann, Biathlon Sports Director at Ski Austria.  

 

 

About Ski Austria 

Founded in 1905 and based in Innsbruck, the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV)/Ski Austria is one of Austria’s most successful sports associations. In addition to promoting skiing as a popular sport, Ski Austria also acts as a high-performance association and organizer of international World Cup events and other major events, making use of its own event companies (which are wholly owned by Ski Austria). Ski Austria faces many challenges in creating the optimal economic conditions for high-performance sport. The perfect execution of major events, the highest level of professionalism in marketing its athletes, and the best possible support for its partners are among the pillars of its success. With over 1,100 clubs, in which approximately 138,000 sports enthusiasts of all ages are organized, Ski Austria is also one of the largest sports associations in Austria.

 

About Cloudflight

Cloudflight is a leading full-service partner for digital transformation. The company offers strategic consulting, customized software development, and cloud operations with a focus on eCommerce, IoT, artificial intelligence, and cloud-native application development. Cloudflight supports customers across Europe in putting innovation into practice and creating measurable value.

 

Image (c): Ski Austria