This winter, track and field athlete Salomé Kora will be competing as a push athlete in the Bobsleigh World Cup for the first time. What attracts her to a sport that, as she says herself, has almost nothing in common with athletics?
19.11.2025, 05:00
19.11.2025, 06:47
SDA
The joy is written all over Salomé Kora's face when she talks about her plans as a bobsleigh pusher - even though everything hurts. As one of only three Swiss women to have run the 100 m in under eleven seconds (10.95), the 31-year-old is trying her hand at a sport other than the short sprints over 100 and 200 meters for the first time this season. Last Tuesday, the athlete from eastern Switzerland skated down the ice track in Cortina as a pusher for the first time. "It's mainly my neck that hurts now," she says with a laugh.
A long process
The G-forces at work in the bobsleigh are particularly new to her. "The first few meters are fine, but then it squeezes you more and more. Unfortunately, I'm not that flexible, so it was very special," says Kora, whose first bobsleigh ride was two years ago. "But that was just a cab ride, so I could look out the top with my head."
Two years is also roughly the time span in which Kora toyed with trying her hand as a pusher. She had been in contact with Beat Hefti, the 2014 Olympic champion, and did a few trial runs as a push athlete. After the 2024 Olympic Games, however, she didn't feel fit and mentally ready enough. "That's why I'm 'unfortunately' only starting now."
Together with her pilot Inola Blatty, she will compete in the World Cup opener in Cortina and the following race in Innsbruck, but will then head to South Africa for a training camp in December. "I still see myself as an athlete, so it's important for me to train again," says Kora.
While one of Blatty's other push athletes will be competing in the World Cup races in December, the most important day for Kora is on December 28. That's when it will be decided who will be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games.
"Basically, we have two quota places. But if we finish ahead of Canada in the World Cup rankings, we'll get a third. From what I've heard, that should be possible in principle." The top three nations receive three starting places, with Germany and the USA likely to be seeded. Nevertheless, the mission is a difficult one.
With Debora Annen and Melanie Hasler, Switzerland already has two successful pilots who, unlike Blatty, already have World Cup experience. Kora has also been in contact with Annen and Hasler, but the 27-year-old from Lucerne was the best fit for her. "Especially because she wanted to strengthen her team for the World Cup compared to the European Cup."
"I was super happy about that"
However, no duos are seeded for the Olympics. The best female pilots and the best female push athletes qualify - independently of each other. If Switzerland has two places at the Olympics, three push athletes qualify, with three pilots it's five.
However, because Kora was unable to compete at the Swiss Push Championships due to a pulled muscle she suffered at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, she currently has no idea how she will compare with the other push athletes.
"I'm fit again, I had two weeks' vacation right after the World Championships and then it took another two or three weeks until I was fully fit. But I was really sorry to miss this first assessment. I'll only see how I compare in December, when it really counts, and whether it's enough for the Olympics," says Kora.
Should she actually manage to compete in Cortina, she would become part of an elite circle. Fewer than ten Swiss athletes have achieved this so far, and Kora would be the first woman. One of her role models could be Rolf Strittmatter. The now 70-year-old was part of the 4x-400-meter relay team in Moscow in 1980 and competed in the bobsleigh four years later in Sarajevo.
"As track and field athletes, we have this very special opportunity to take part in two different sports at both Olympic Games and look into a completely different world at a high level," says Kora. She definitely wants to take advantage of this and see how it goes. However, she is not sure whether she will remain involved in pushing after the start of the season. "I could imagine competing in a few World Cup races each winter. But I'd first have to see if any female pilots want to do that."
Kora doesn't actually want to think too far ahead just yet, but wants to deliver a good race in Cortina first. "I've heard that it's a relatively easy course," she says. That will certainly play into her hands. And perhaps Kora will actually return to the same ice rink in Italy in February to compete in the Olympic Games. It would be a great story - returning to the track of her first World Cup race.
