FIS Coach Introductions | Sep 25th
Good evening FIS families,
Three coaches are joining the FIS program: Matilda Gutke, Pablo Carrasco and Jann Sutter. All three are at various stages of the visa process and will be in Whistler just as soon as they can. Wednesday, we hosted a meeting to introduce Pablo, recording is linked at the bottom if you missed it or want to hear it again.
Here is a brief introduction for all three.
Matilda Gutke
Matilda grew up in the Swedish system, raced to the FIS level there, and came to the US to ski for Castleton University in Vermont. She has coached FIS athletes for five seasons: Okemo Mountain School, Holderness School, and last season with the Nakiska FIS team here in Canada. She is certified through U.S. Ski & Snowboard at Level 200 and as an alpine official.
She also holds a master's degree in educational research, and her thesis was on the mental health of injured student-athletes. At Holderness she was given specific responsibility for athletes working their way back from injury.
Pablo Carrasco
Pablo is Chilean and has built his career in ski racing across three continents. He coached for three seasons with SkiZenit in Chile, Argentina, Switzerland, France and Italy, and ran their Chilean operation. He is currently Teams Coordinator at El Colorado — the venue our athletes trained at in September — where he manages training hill allocation and logistics for World Cup, Olympic, NorAm, European Cup and club teams through a full season.
He also founded and runs his own FIS camp program on the South American circuit: hiring the coaches, selecting the athletes, running the budget. Pablo understands what a good training day requires from both sides, the coach's and the organizer's. He is a Wilderness First Responder, and he speaks Spanish, English and some Portuguese.
Jann Sutter
Jann comes to us from Schiers, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. He attended the Sport School in Davos and raced as a FIS athlete in Switzerland. He has seven seasons of coaching and instructing behind him with the ski schools at Saas and Klosters, where he now serves as training manager, and in 2025 he earned his Swiss Level 4 instructor licence. Last season he coached FIS athletes in the southern hemisphere with the Wanaka Ski Team in New Zealand.
He is also a trained mechanic, which anyone who has watched a coach wrestle with a binding at the top of a course will appreciate.
Why these three
I did not hire three versions of the same coach. Matilda brings depth in the North American FIS calendar and in the work that sits underneath performance. Pablo brings the experience of building and running programs, and a network across South America and Europe. Jann brings a strong understanding of Swiss ski pedagogy and a season of southern-hemisphere coaching. They will complement each other and offer three unique perspectives instead of one.
All three are new to Whistler. Brad Eades has generously offered to act as a sounding board to help them with contacts and context. Thankfully, all three have demonstrated adaptability working in foreign environments. Once they get visa’s approved expect them to spend the early weeks planning fall camps, race schedules and above all learning your athletes.
Wednesday meeting recording — link
Thanks,
Jeff Lackie
WMSC Executive Director
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