Retired skier Didier Cuche returns to coach Swiss national team

BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- Four-time World Cup downhill champion Didier Cuche will help coach his former Switzerland teammates after their slow start to the season.

The Swiss ski federation says the 38-year-old Cuche, who retired from racing in March, will primarily advise on training days ahead of downhill races. He starts next week in Italy before the Dec. 15 downhill in Val Gardena.

The team says Cuche will continue at the January races in Wengen, Switzerland, and Kitzbuehel, Austria, where he was a five-time winner.

Swiss racers Didier Defago, the Olympic downhill champion, and Carlo Janka won back-to-back Wengen titles in 2009 and `10.

However, Defago's 10th-place finish in Beaver Creek, Colorado, is the team's best result this season.

Since Cuche retired, 2012 Wengen champion Beat Feuz has also been sidelined by injury.