Austria arrives in Chengdu next week as the world’s top-ranked European women’s flag football nation, but what has eluded them since 2021 is a place on the podium.
Ranked fourth in the world behind only USA, Mexico and Japan, Austria sits a place ahead of reigning champions Great Britain thanks to a fourth-place finish at the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Finland. They also finished fourth at The World Games in Alabama in 2022.
Nobody has won more gold medals in European continental competition than Austria, who were crowned champions four consecutive times from 2009 to 2015. Their last medal success came at the IFAF world championships when a 26-13 win over Brazil claimed bronze in Israel.
“If you are fourth in the World Championships, your goal is to get a medal from The World Games and from the Euros,” says head coach Robert Riedl, who took charge in 2014 after his nation’s disappointing challenge at the Euros in Ireland a year earlier. “Now it’s our second year with players who have been successful who will only get better.”
It was Riedl who led Austria to their quadruple medal haul in Europe, second place at the IFAF World Championships in 2016 and third place at the 2010 and 2014 tournaments. Only a one-point loss to Japan denied Austria the worlds bronze medal in Finland last year.
“I’m very pleased that I have a really good coaching staff, much more than the two-man show than it was when I first coached the national team,” says Riedl, who has only ever played and coached flag football, and is not a convert from tackle. “I consult more than I coach because the coordinators call their own plays and run the offense and defense. I focus more on the bigger picture. My goal is to have an environment where the coaches and players can play at the highest level.”
Now Austria faces current world champion USA, an improving Canada team and an unknown quantity in hosts China in the group stages at The World Games in Chengdu from August 14-17. All games will be streamed live at The World Games Live.
“We have no clue about how China will be, so it will be interesting to see how they can compete in such a short amount of time,” explains Riedl. “I am really curious to see them play. We won’t have time to scout them so that will be a challenge for our coaches to react to what they bring to the game.
“USA is going to be really tough. I remember the years when I was coaching from 2008 to 2016. They got better, but they never really had camps or anything like that before tournaments, but now they seem to have thousands of players to choose from and are very well organized.
“Canada we will see before we play them, so we will scout their game and make our gameplan.”
Having been knocked out of The World Games at the semifinals stage by the United States in 2022, Austria suffered the same fate at the hands of the Americans at the 2024 world championships. That latest loss was part of the learning curve for this generation of Austrians and one Riedl hopes will serve as a means to create a shock in Chengdu.
“Last year we didn’t perform as well as we had hoped and they made no mistakes, so we couldn’t really keep up with them,” he says. “I’m convinced that we are not that far away, but we need them to have a bad day and for us to play our best and take our chances.”
Perhaps those factors all aligning with putting Austria back on the podium with which they were so familiar not so long ago.
Player to Watch: QB Saskia Stribrny Head Coach: Robert Riedl, 2nd Year World Ranking: 4th Form (last 5 games): L vs JPN / L vs USA / W vs ITA / W vs BRZ / W vs SPA
IFAF Tournaments 2024 World Championships: 4th 2023 Europe Continentals: 7th 2022 The World Games: 4th 2021 World Championships: 3rd
Photo: Ian Humes
