The great moment in Sarajevo: Max Julen as winner of the giant slalom
Image: Keystone
Swiss ice hockey's finest hour: the 2:1 victory over Finland in Calgary in 1988 is a sensation
Image: Keystone
The Swiss skier of the century: Vreni Schneider left her mark on the 1988 Games in Calgary and many other races
Image: Keystone
Ski acrobat of the first hour: Andreas "Sonny" Schönbächler flies spectacularly to gold in Lillehammer in 1994
Image: Keystone
Thumbs up: Didier Défago achieved the perfect downhill in Whistler/Vancouver in 2010
Image: Keystone
Together with Simon Ammann, the most successful Winter Olympian in Swiss history: cross-country skier Dario Cologna returned home from Sochi with two gold medals, winning one in Vancouver in 2010 and one in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Image: Keystone
The great moment in Sarajevo: Max Julen as winner of the giant slalom
Image: Keystone
Swiss ice hockey's finest hour: the 2:1 victory over Finland in Calgary in 1988 is a sensation
Image: Keystone
The Swiss skier of the century: Vreni Schneider left her mark on the 1988 Games in Calgary and many other races
Image: Keystone
Ski acrobat of the first hour: Andreas "Sonny" Schönbächler flies spectacularly to gold in Lillehammer in 1994
Image: Keystone
Thumbs up: Didier Défago achieved the perfect downhill in Whistler/Vancouver in 2010
Image: Keystone
Together with Simon Ammann, the most successful Winter Olympian in Swiss history: cross-country skier Dario Cologna returned home from Sochi with two gold medals, winning one in Vancouver in 2010 and one in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Image: Keystone
Even after 1980, Swiss athletes continue to provide many highlights in sporting history.
26.01.2026, 04:32
01.02.2026, 10:46
SDA
1984: Cool in the whistling
He only won one World Cup race, the favorites in the 1984 Olympic giant slalom were others. Pirmin Zurbriggen, Phil Mahre, Hans Enn, Joël Gaspoz and Andreas Wenzel. But now Max Julen is standing in the starting house for the second run, looking down into the valley from the Bjelasnica mountain. What he sees could be intimidating: 30,000 Yugoslavian fans whistling and booing mercilessly. One of them is leading, Jure Franko, and at the top there is only a slight man from Upper Valais, the almost 23-year-old Max Julen. He wears only ski goggles, his hair fluttering in the wind. Helmets are still a long way off in the giant slalom - and he can hear everything.
Julen knows that this is his golden opportunity. The track in the forest is steep, but narrow and short, and the course is inevitably tight. Ideal for an agile lightweight like him. The whistles don't make him nervous, they motivate him. The man from Zermatt, who now runs a hotel with a view of the Matterhorn back home, wins with a lead of 23 hundredths over Franko. The latter is also delighted with silver, congratulates him immediately and shows more sporting spirit than his compatriots on the slopes. Tragic: just eight years later, the inhabitants of Sarajevo were fired upon from this very mountain during the Yugoslavian war and besieged for almost four years.
1988: The silent tornado from Elm
The alpine skiing competitions at the 1988 Games in Canada were dominated by two superstars who couldn't be more different: Alberto Tomba and Vreni Schneider. The Italian is known as a loudmouth and party king, while the Glarus native knits in her hotel room in her free time. They are both gifted skiers and are unbeatable in the slalom and giant slalom. Tomba wins the giant slalom by over a second, Schneider the giant slalom by 93 hundredths and the slalom by an incredible 1.68 seconds - and that with the burden of being the top favorite at her first Olympic Games.
The Elmer's second runs are impressive and soon to become legendary. It often takes a deficit to lure the quiet Glarus native out of her shell. After a disappointing Games in 1992, Schneider won another Olympic victory in the slalom in Lillehammer in 1994, as well as silver in the combined and bronze in the giant slalom. With three World Championship titles, three overall World Cup victories and a total of 55 first places in the World Cup, Vreni Schneider is the most successful Swiss skier in history and is rightly named Swiss Sportswoman of the 20th Century.
The defensive battle of Calgary
In the 1980s, Swiss ice hockey was far from first-class. At the 1987 World Championships in Vienna, they were relegated with 0 points from 10 games, losing 5:13 to the Soviet Union, 1:12 to Sweden and 1:8 to West Germany. Expectations for the following year's Winter Games in Calgary were correspondingly low.
And then this: The Swiss win their opening game 2:1 against the eventual silver medallists Finland in the iconic Saddledome. In the opening period, coach Simon Schenk's team surprises with a counter-attack goal from Peter Jaks and a slapshot from Köbi Kölliker and leads 2:0. A defensive battle develops at the latest after the Finns' follow-up goal. Led by the NLA stars Kari Eloranta (Lugano) and Rexi Ruotsalainen (Bern), the northerners press for the equalizer, but the outstanding Davos goalkeeper Richi Bucher can no longer be beaten. He saves 32 of 33 shots. The Swiss then beat Poland, but narrowly missed out on the final round of the top six.
1994: Sonny Schönbächler's Norwegian miracle
Andreas Schönbächler, known to everyone as Sonny, is one of the most surprising Swiss Olympic champions. When ski acrobatics made its Olympic debut as a fully recognized sport in Lillehammer in 1994, the Zug native had already been competing in the World Cup for ten years - without ever having won a competition. He barely made it through qualifying in tenth place. On February 24, however, Schönbächler is floating on a cloud and conjures up two perfect jumps over the hill. The favored Canadians were left behind and had to settle for silver and bronze.
Schönbächler, with his jumping center in Mettmenstetten in Zurich's Säuliamt region, later made a significant contribution to further Swiss medals in the discipline known in New England as aerials. And he is at the origin of a tradition. New sports are real gold mines for Switzerland. In 1998, curlers with skip Patrick Hürlimann won the first Olympic tournament of modern times, and snowboarder Gian Simmen triumphed in the halfpipe. Tanja Frieden's gold medal in the first snowboard cross event in 2006, the "Goldplämpu of Turin", is unforgettable. In 2010, Mike Schmid dominates the newly introduced ski cross. In 2026, medals are awarded for the first time in the ski touring race in Bormio. Here, too, the Swiss are among the top favorites.
2010: Défago's film without a snowstorm
For 22 years and Pirmin Zurbriggen's victory in Calgary, Switzerland has been waiting for an Olympic downhill champion when the 2010 Games return to Canada. Seven Swiss have fulfilled the selection criteria, with hopes resting above all on Didier Cuche, who sets the fastest time in both training runs, and Carlo Janka. The man from Graubünden later wins the giant slalom. Didier Défago, on the other hand, first has to assert himself within the team and gets the fourth Swiss starting place. Due to a storm with snow and rain, the downhill had to be postponed by two days. By the time things got serious, there was no sign of the snowstorm - neither in the sky nor in Défago's head. "Before the start, you imagine the ride like a movie and press 'play'. But then it almost never goes exactly to plan. There's always a bit of snow in the picture," explains the man from Valais. "But this time it worked out almost perfectly." When he crosses the finish line and it lights up green as a sign of the best time, he knows that this is "certainly enough for a medal" - after five world championships and two Olympic Games without a precious metal.
In his long career, Défago has also won the classic races on the Lauberhorn and in Kitzbühel, but "the Olympic victory is always in the forefront of everyone's mind when giving speeches," he notes. Even after retiring a good ten years ago, the trained structural draughtsman remains loyal to skiing. Today, he is managing director of the World Cup race committees and the 2027 World Championships in Crans-Montana.
2014: Cologna wins the race against time
Dario Cologna is at his peak in Sochi in 2014. Nevertheless, his successes hang by a thread. In November, he tore a ligament in his right ankle while jogging and his recovery until the Olympics became a race against time. And then the Grisons native from Val Müstair in the south-easternmost corner of Switzerland runs the competition into the ground. Four years earlier, he was the first Swiss cross-country skier to win gold at his first Olympic Games. In Russia, he wins the skiathlon, in which he is the reigning world champion, in a four-man sprint on the home straight. "That makes it even more special and emotional," recalls Cologna.
Over 15 km with an individual start, he repeated his victory in Vancouver with a lead of almost half a minute. And even more would have been possible. He was also on course for gold in the 50 km supreme discipline until the last climb, which was tailored to him, before a fall robbed him of all chances. Nevertheless, he left an impressive mark on the Games in Sochi. "They are wonderful memories," he says. "Also because there were lots of spectators on the track in Russia." His parents and his current wife Laura were also there, and he ran the team sprint with his brother Gianluca, finishing fifth. Four years later, he won his fourth Olympic gold medal in South Korea. He is the first cross-country skier in history to triumph over the same distance at three Games in a row.
