Swiss send small delegation to Summer Olympics

Keystone

The national Olympic committee has completed the Swiss delegation for the Summer Games due to begin in Beijing in less than three weeks.

Among 82 men and women are five medal hopes, including cycling time trial specialist Fabian Cancellara, marathon runner Viktor Röthlin, swimmer Flavia Rigamonti as well as tennis star Roger Federer and Sergei Aschwanden in judo.

The Swiss athletes are taking part in 17 different Olympic disciplines ranging from athletics and badminton to horse show jumping, sailing, taekwondo and triathlon.

It is the smallest Olympic delegation since the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada.

The members of the delegation were handed special equipment, including masks to protect themselves from the air pollution and a vaccine against diarrhoea by Swiss Olympic on Tuesday.

“We hope we can work in acceptable conditions,” said the delegation’s chief medical doctor, Beat Villiger.

He said there is concern about the high levels of ozone and fine particles in the air even though the Chinese promised to cut back pollution by up to 20 per cent.

“They did not even install official measuring stations,” Villiger said. Therefore the Swiss have teamed up with the United States delegation to use a private network of stations.

Special deals were also struck with pharmaceutical and food companies to provide the best possible medical care for Swiss athletes.

It is expected that two out of five members will be affected by stomach problems in China according to Villiger.

Small but successful?

The Swiss delegation is the smallest in more than 30 years, when only 57 athletes were nominated for the Montreal Olympics.

The most successful Summer Games for the Swiss in the recent past were those in Sydney, Australia, eight years ago, when the delegation came back with a total of nine medals and 18 diplomas.

The 1996 delegation to Atlanta also shone brightly as it struck gold four times and three times silver.

Werner Augsburger, head of the Beijing delegation, says he is not putting pressure on Swiss athletes.

“The goal is to do as well as in Athens four years ago when we won five medals, including a gold.”

He added that it was unrealistic to expect a medal on a daily basis.

“I would be very happy if our athletes improved their personal best results,” Augsburger said.

Paralympics

Two weeks after the end of the Summer Games, 18 Swiss men and nine women will be in Beijing for the Paralympics, an international multi-sport event for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities.

About 4,000 participants from 144 countries are competing in 20 disciplines for the 427 medals that will be awarded.

Switzerland is represented in six disciplines, including archery, athletics, cycling, shooting, swimming and wheelchair tennis.

The head of the Swiss delegation, Ruedi Spitzli said he was hoping for a total of 11 medals from the games, or five fewer than won at the games in Athens four years ago.

“We are confident that we will achieve our target. We should not forget that we have eight medal winners from Athens who will compete again,” Spitzli said.

Among the Swiss hopes are Urs Kolly, who already has seven gold medals, as well as Edith Hunkeler and Heinz Frei.

swissinfo with agencies

In brief

The Olympic Games take place from August 8-24 in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

The 82-strong Swiss delegation is among more than 10,000 athletes competing in 302 events in 28 sports.

The Paralympics will take place from September 6-17.

Swiss Olympic

The association is Switzerland’s national Olympic committee and the umbrella organisation of Swiss sport.

82 member federations – from A as in Aero-Club to W as in Wushu Federation – belong to Swiss Olympic.

The organisation represents indirectly about 2.8 million people practising sport in 22,600 clubs.