19 years at the top: Atomic names Michael Absmaier to succeed Wolfgang Mayrhofer

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen in the Olympic giant slalom in Bormio, 14 February 2026, on Atomic skis. Photo: Dispe via Wikimedia Commons, CC0, cropped

Atomic announced on Monday 19 October 2026 that President Wolfgang Mayrhofer retires at the end of the year, after more than four decades with the brand and 19 years at its head. Michael Absmaier, the ski maker's finance chief and a Pongau local, takes over on 1 January 2027. Six days after the announcement, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the Sölden opener on Atomic skis. Here is who takes over, what Atomic is in 2026, and what it means for the skis on the shelf.

• Mayrhofer has led Atomic since December 2007. The company says its business more than doubled in the past decade; he stays on as an adviser to Amer Sports.
• Absmaier has more than 20 years at Amer Sports, more than a decade as Atomic's CFO and VP Business Development, and a spell as acting CEO of Armada.
• Anssi Lampinen, almost 20 years at Amer Sports and lately its VP Finance, becomes CFO on the same day. The rest of the leadership team is unchanged.
• Atomic, founded in 1955 by Alois Rohrmoser and owned by Amer Sports since November 1994, says it employs more than 750 people in Altenmarkt and builds more than 400,000 pairs of skis a year.
• October at Atomic: media day on 8 October, the Nexus boot launch on 14 October, Braathen's contract extended to 2030 on 20 October, the Sölden win on 25 October.

The company in Altenmarkt im Pongau made the change public on Monday afternoon, ORF Salzburg reported, and Mayrhofer will "advise" Amer Sports after his retirement. Salzburg24 called it a generational change at the top, and the Salzburger Nachrichten introduced the successor as "the Pongauer Michael Absmaier". The succession comes from inside the company, MeinBezirk Pongau wrote on 21 October.

"Atomic and skiing have shaped almost my entire working life," Mayrhofer said in the Atomic press release. "To spend more than four decades in a sport I love, with a brand I deeply believe in, has been a privilege." Amer Sports CEO James Zheng thanked him in the same release for 40 years of contributions and for steering the brand since 2007. Absmaier, who learned to ski above Radstadt and has worked 23 years in the industry, has played a central role in Atomic's strategic and financial direction for more than a decade, the release says. Under Mayrhofer the business more than doubled in ten years, heute.at noted, citing the company. FashionUnited adds that Absmaier will also lead Armada as president and join Amer Sports' global leadership team; the Atomic release itself does not say so.

Roles per the Atomic release of 19 October 2026. Mayrhofer's age and his exact posts before 2007 are not given in the release or in the reports we read; as of 26 October 2026, Amer Sports has published no corporate release of its own on the change.

The employee and production figures are Atomic's own, from its company page dated August 2026; the 2017 numbers come from an APA report of March 2019. No newer revenue figure is public. The parent, Amer Sports, has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1 February 2024 and names Arc'teryx, Salomon, Wilson, Peak Performance and Atomic as its brands. Its second-quarter report of 18 August 2026 shows group revenue up 32 percent to 1,633 million dollars; the report does not break out Atomic. Anta Sports is the largest shareholder: APA puts its stake at 40 percent, Atomic's own page at 44.5 percent.

Atomic held its media day in Altenmarkt on 8 October with 13 athletes, 28 crystal globes and six Olympic titles on stage, next to the factory where the race skis are built, according to the Atomic newsroom. The brand counts 46 World Cup podiums, 20 wins, four globes and seven Olympic medals by 19 athletes for 2025/26, with Mikaela Shiffrin on the Redster team. On 14 October it launched the Nexus boot family: seven models around the Nexus 120 BOA with a 101 mm last and a construction that keeps an overlap shell but opens wide for entry. On 20 October Braathen extended his partnership, which began in 2019, to 2030; he won his Olympic gold on 14 February 2026 on a Redster model that had first touched snow a few weeks earlier, the brand says.

Then came Sölden. On Sunday 25 October Braathen won the men's giant slalom in 1:44.72, with Raphael Haaser 5th and Alex Vinatzer 7th, three Atomic skiers in the top seven, per the FIS result list; our report has both results. The handover also comes one year after the European Commission's unannounced inspections at ski makers, which Amer Sports confirmed for Atomic's Austrian sites; our article of 24 October follows that case.

Nothing changes on the shelf on 1 January: the leadership team is otherwise unchanged and the current strategy continues, the release says. The 2026/27 Atomic range is already in the shops and in our catalog, with the makers' figures: the Redster G9 (67 mm waist, 15 to 18 m radius at 166 to 181 cm) is the piste ski from the family Braathen races, the Maverick 88 Ti (87 mm, 15.5 to 19.5 m at 161 to 184 cm) is the all-mountain pick, and the Bent 100 (100 mm, 19 m at 179 cm) covers soft snow. The Pick-a-ski tool compares them with the rest of the catalog on your level and terrain.

• Atomic press release, 19 October 2026 (English and German versions on the Atomic newsroom); Atomic newsroom releases of 9, 14 and 21 October 2026; Atomic company page, August 2026
• ORF Salzburg, Salzburger Nachrichten, Salzburg24, OÖ Nachrichten, trend.at and news.at (APA), heute.at, FashionUnited, skinews.ch, all 19 October 2026; MeinBezirk Pongau, 21 October 2026
• Amer Sports second-quarter 2026 results, 18 August 2026; Amer Sports IPO pricing release, 31 January 2024
• Tiroler Tageszeitung / APA, 12 March 2019; FIS result list, men's giant slalom Sölden, 25 October 2026
• Pick-A-Ski catalog, makers' figures for the Atomic models named above