Joel Wicki can't take a deep breath (yet). In Magglingen, he is preparing for the upcoming wreath festival season together with other top wrestlers.
Image: Keystone
Fabian Staudenmann (left) and Michael Moser are also taking part in the training session.
Image: Keystone
This is led by Matthias Glarner. The wrestling king of 2016 is the "head of wrestling" at the Federal Office of Sport, which makes the WKs and recruit school possible with sports funding.
Image: Keystone
27 wrestlers are currently in Magglingen, including Matthias Aeschbacher (left) and Michael Ledermann.
Image: Keystone
A modern training hall has been available to the top wrestlers in Magglingen for around two and a half years.
Image: Keystone
Joel Wicki can't take a deep breath (yet). In Magglingen, he is preparing for the upcoming wreath festival season together with other top wrestlers.
Image: Keystone
Fabian Staudenmann (left) and Michael Moser are also taking part in the training session.
Image: Keystone
This is led by Matthias Glarner. The wrestling king of 2016 is the "head of wrestling" at the Federal Office of Sport, which makes the WKs and recruit school possible with sports funding.
Image: Keystone
27 wrestlers are currently in Magglingen, including Matthias Aeschbacher (left) and Michael Ledermann.
Image: Keystone
A modern training hall has been available to the top wrestlers in Magglingen for around two and a half years.
Image: Keystone
27 top wrestlers are currently preparing for the upcoming wreath festival season as part of their military service. The Keystone-SDA news agency visits them in Magglingen.
11.03.2025, 18:58
SDA
Joel Wicki, Fabian Staudenmann, Matthias Aeschbacher, Michael Moser: many a wreath festival in the coming season would be happy to have these names on its list of participants. All of them and 23 other top wrestlers will be competing this Tuesday in the wrestling hall in Magglingen. Five of them - Matthieu Burger, Romain Collaud, Jan Roth, Fabian Stucki and Moser - are in the top sport RS, the other athletes are completing a WK in preparation for the coming season.
The highlight at the end of August
The 2025 wreath festival season, which starts at the beginning of May, will culminate in the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival. The wrestling king will be determined in Mollis on August 30/31. However, the thousands of spectators who will fill the stands in Glarus and create a breathtaking atmosphere are still a long way off.
It is almost eerily quiet in the sawdust-filled hall, which has provided the best training conditions for the wrestlers for around two and a half years. All that can be heard is loud panting, and anyone who wants to say something whispers. Every few minutes, a command from Matthias Glarner breaks the silence. The wrestling king of 2016 is the head of the wrestlers in Magglingen and leads the training sessions.
Then it happens: Fabian Staudenmann is lying on his back. Something that never happened in the entire previous season and would have caused a standing ovation in the stands is acknowledged above Biel with a shrug of the shoulders.
Wicki once each against Giger and Staudenmann
As the best wrestler in the 2024 annual rankings and co-winner of the Federal Jubilee Wrestling Festival in Appenzell, the Bernese wrestler is one of the hottest contenders for the title of king. The same applies to Samuel Giger from north-eastern Switzerland, winner of the Unspunnen. The giant duel between the two will not take place before the ESAF. "Not a conscious decision, but a coincidence," says Staudenmann. He hadn't taken into account who would compete where in his planning.
Joel Wicki has the same to say. The wrestling king from Sörenberg was the last of the top wrestlers to publish his agenda at the beginning of the week - and he is not avoiding any of the big names in the run-up to the highlight of the season. Like his association colleague Pirmin Reichmuth, he will be competing on Stoos, where a strong Bernese faction including Staudenmann, Matthias Aeschbacher and Adrian Walther will be guests this year. At the Central Swiss event in Seedorf, Wicki and Reichmuth will face the North-East Swiss figureheads Samuel Giger and Werner Schlegel. "You want to do mountain festivals, the Central Swiss anyway. In the end, we'll all meet in August anyway," says the wrestling king.
Until then, however, one or two beads of sweat will still be dripping into the sawdust in Magglingen.
