Switzerland will be represented for the first time at the women's European Curling Championships by the Zug team led by skip Corrie Hürlimann. For some of the team, talent is literally in their genes.
21.11.2025, 04:30
21.11.2025, 07:07
SDA
The Swiss women have won gold four times and silver twice at the last six world championships. They have also reached the final at the last three European Championships - winning the last two. Silvana Tirinzoni and Alina Pätz were there every time.
But at the Swiss Championships in February, the CC Aarau team was beaten in the semi-finals by the Zug team. Because Celine Schwizgebel, Stefanie Berset, Marina Loertscher and Corrie Hürlimann subsequently also won the final against GC Zurich (Xenia Schwaller), they can now take part in the European Championships for the first time from Saturday in Lohja, Finland. The coup did not come as a surprise to Hürlimann: they had previously built up a lot of self-confidence with good tournaments. "We really believed that we could do it," she said during a media interview in Zug.
Father as role model
Nevertheless, their success is astonishing, as the four of them have only been playing together since the end of November 2024. Is it down to genes? 27-year-old Corrie Hürlimann is the daughter of Patrick Hürlimann, who won Olympic gold as a skip in Nagano in 1998. His wife Janet (born Omand) was also a top curler - she won World Championship bronze in 1992. Today she is the coach of the Zug team. Corrie's sister Briar, who is married to the skip of the Swiss men's team in Lohja, Yannick Schwaller, was part of Tirinzoni's 2023 World Championship gold medal team.
Her father was a role model for Corrie Hürlimann. He now comes to her individual training sessions from time to time, but generally stays out of it. Her mother, on the other hand, has been training her from an early age. However, Corrie Hürlimann emphasizes: "My parents never pushed us to play curling. My sister only started when she was 14. We practiced different sports - I played tennis and handball. But I knew early on that I wanted to do curling."
Loertscher also has genes for success
But it's not just Corrie Hürlimann who brings successful curling genes to the Zug team. Marina Loertscher's father Patrik was also a member of Patrick Hürlimann's team in 1998 and played in the third position, just like his daughter. "I also tested a lot: Swimming, horse riding, skiing and also tennis," says 26-year-old Marina Loertscher. She used to watch curling on TV with her mother at the Olympic Games - her father is still commentating today. "He always knew in advance what the teams were going to do. I thought it was super cool. One day I wanted to try it out too."
Stefanie Berset joined the Zug team instead of Sarah Müller. Sarah Müller's father, Daniel, was also a member of the successful 1998 Swiss Olympic team, so the previous constellation was even more special than the current one. It is also special that both Loertscher and Berset are studying sports science. Corrie Hürlimann studied economics and is now completing an internship, whereby she is very flexible and can even work from abroad. The same applies to Celine Schwizgebel, who currently still has an 80% workload but is reducing it.
Intensive mental training
The minimum target for the European Championships is 7th place, which is equivalent to direct qualification for the World Championships next March, although it is not yet clear who will represent Switzerland. "We know it's going to be a tough week," says Hürlimann. "Most of the teams have already played several European and World Championships and even Olympic Games." Given the inexperience at this level, the biggest challenge will be to perform consistently well. "So many factors have to come together in curling in order to beat the top teams on a regular basis," emphasizes Hürlimann. "We've worked hard in mental training to ensure that everyone can play their role on the ice so that we can get the best out of the team. The mental strain is enormous. At the top level in particular, it's often the head that makes the difference."
The quartet put the finishing touches to their training for the European Championships last week during a three-day mini-camp in Biel. "It was all about getting a good feeling," says Berset. The title fights in Lohja are just the first step. The long-term goal is the 2030 Olympic Games in Nice and the French Alps. Swiss curling fans should be able to cheer again then too.
Swiss men ready for another title hunt
In contrast to the women, the men's European Championship team with Pablo Lachat-Couchepin, Sven Michel, skip Yannick Schwaller and Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel already has plenty of international experience. In this line-up, the quartet has won silver and bronze at both the World and European Championships.
At the World Championships in Moose Jaw, Canada, in the spring, the Swiss lacked very little to score a coup in the high-class final against Scotland (4:5). "After the World Championships in Schaffhausen (7th) and 4th place at the last European Championships, it was a huge relief that we were able to show our full potential for once," says Sven Michel in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency.
The CC Geneva team would like to build on this in Finland. The results so far this season - most recently the four reached the semi-finals at the Grand Slam tournament in Tahoe - have given the Swiss a positive outlook. "We're in a good mood," said Schwaller. Michel adds: "We know that we can beat any team." Only the details are still missing to win a major tournament. "What we still have to perfect is staying calm in the most important situations and playing exactly the same as we did when the score was 0-0 in the first end."
The eighth and last European Championship title for a Swiss men's team was twelve years ago. So it's time to put an end to this drought - although the competition, led by the Scots, is fierce.
