How Swiss Athletics brings young talent to world-class level

The five medals won at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn are, in principle, five medals with an announcement. Ditaji Kambundji, Angelica Moser, Annik Kälin, Simon Ehammer and Audrey Werro, who dropped out due to a fall, are all former finalists of the UBS Kids Cup, the Visana Sprint or Mille Gruyère, to name the most important junior projects that were created or revived around the athletics boom of the 2014 European Championships in Zurich. Only Mujinga Kambundji still had to overcome many stumbling blocks herself on her way to becoming a professional athlete. Her successor generation has already benefited considerably more from the work of the association.

National squad width tripled

Karin Schnüriger has been a member of the Swiss Athletics Executive Board as Head of Young Athletes and Training since 2019. The former all-around athlete says: "We manage to not only get many young people interested in athletics, but also to bring them up to an international level later on. We are noticing that more and more athletes are prepared to play top-level sport." Expressed in figures: the national junior squad (Swiss Starters Future) has more than tripled since 2015 (55).

Higher performance density

Not only the elite, but also the grassroots are more diverse. "We have more and more children in our junior projects," says Karin Schnüriger, but at the same time emphasizes: "The number of licences among young people has not changed much and is stable. On the contrary, we are noticing that the performance density is higher. This has a positive effect on the results." In other words: With the talent scouting in all the youth projects, the right ones are being picked out.

The higher performance density is also a good testimony to the coaches, the transfer of know-how between all the cells and performance centers, the sports science work and everyone who is committed to athletics. Swiss Athletics is a professional organization, even if voluntary work is indispensable.

Creating opportunities

"In recent years, we have paid a lot of attention to 'creating opportunities'," says Karin Schnüriger, mentioning an additional point that particularly motivates young athletes. "This means that we adopt the international selection criteria to enable as many athletes as possible to take part in major events and gain important experience there. This has not always been the case and is handled differently in many countries."

Philipp Bandi, who took part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a long-distance runner and is now Head of Competitive Sports at Swiss Athletics, experiences a momentum of his own in the young athletes' environment that his generation lacked. "The youngsters today grow up with medals. That motivates them, promotes the copycat effect and helps them become more professional," emphasizes the Bernese athlete. "The density reinforces the boom."

In Apeldoorn, Annik Kälin, for example, raves about this momentum: "We're all still young, but we've been competing together for so long. And everyone keeps improving. That motivates you, it pulls you along." And the development goes on and on. "Every time you think you've reached the plateau, you go one step higher."