Team Switzerland - Profile

Highlights:

Switzerland sent at two-man team to the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 and returned home with the NOC's first Olympic medals. Artistic gymnast Louis Zutter won three total medals at the 1896 Games, his gold came on pommel horse and his two silver on parallel bars and vault. The NOC has sent a team to every edition of the Olympics Games since and has won at least one gold medal at 21 editions.

Switzerland has had a great amount of success in artistic gymnastics, particularly in the early-to-mid 20th century, led by Georges Miez and Eugen Mack who each won eight total medals, still the most of any Swiss athlete.

Miez dominated the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, winning the horizontal bar, as well as individual and team all-around titles and took silver on pommel horse. He then added a floor gold to his tally in 1936 in Berlin. Mack ended his Games career with two gold, four silver and two bronze, all claimed over just two editions of the Games in 1928 and 1936.

Shooting events have proved to be another source of Olympic success for Switzerland. The NOC's second-most prominent gold medal winner, Konrad Staheli, won three Olympic titles and added a bronze at the 1900 Games, taking the men's 300m military rifle kneeling title, as well as being a part of the 50m military revolver and 300m free rifle teams that took Olympic gold. Emil Kellenberger, who is ranked equal-fifth on Switzerland's all-time medal table, joined Staheli on the 300m free rifle team, and won the men's 3 position title in 1900.

One of only four Swiss women to win an Olympic gold medal, equestrian dressage rider Christine Stuckelberger won her gold at Munich 1976 in the individual dressage event and was part of the silver-winning dressage team in 1976, 1984 and 1988. She also won one more individual dressage medal at Seoul 1988, a bronze.

Two of the other three women to win Olympic gold for Switzerland both did so in triathlon. Brigitte McMahon won the event in 2000 and Nicola Spirig matched her efforts 12 years later in London, then added a silver at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Helene de Pourtales was part of the Swiss crew that took gold in the sailing 1-2 ton class at the 1900 Games, and in doing so became, not only the first Swiss woman to win Olympic gold, but also the first woman from any NOC to win gold at the Olympic Games.

McMahon and Spirig's gold medals are two of Switzerland's nine Olympic titles since 2000. Other notable performances from this period are tennis great Roger Federer, who teamed up with Stan Wawrinka to win men's doubles gold in 2008 and road cyclist Fabian Cancellara who won back-to-back titles in the men's individual time trial, making him one of only two men to win two Olympic individual road time trial gold medals.

At the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Swiss athletes won three gold medals, the NOC's best tally since the Atlanta Games in 1996. In addition to Cancellara defending his title in the road cycling individual time trial, the other gold medals were won by the lightweight men's four rowing team and mountain biker Nino Schurter.

Additional Information: Website
http://www.swissolympic.ch

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/swissolympicteam

Anthem Title: Schweizerpsalm [DE], Cantique suisse [FR], Salmo svizzero [IT], Psalm svizzer [Romansch]

Anthem Inducted: 1981

Official NOC Name: Swiss Olympic Association

Founding Date: 1912

IOC Recognition Date: 1912

Delegation President: Jurg Stahl

Delegation Secretary General: Roger Schnegg

IOC Members: Denis Oswald [entry in the IOC: 1991], Dr Rene Fasel [entry in the IOC: 1995], Gianni Infantino [entry in the IOC: 2020]

First OG/PG Appearance: 1896

Number OG/PG Appearances: 29 [Tokyo 2020 included]

Summary: