Olympic champion Beat Hefti speaks plainly "That's why we're only lagging behind the competition in bobsleigh"
Switzerland's last bobsleigh star Beat Hefti knows the reasons for the gradual decline of the Swiss bobsleighers. His recipe? Allow more influence from other sports - and more money.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Olympic champion Beat Hefti criticizes the Swiss Bobsleigh Association for a lack of self-criticism and sees the main problems not in the material, but in poor start times.
- He pleads for the integration of athletes from other sports and refers to his 2020 championship title with former track and field athlete Dominik Schläpfer. Hefti became Swiss champion even though he had long since retired.
- For sustainable success, Hefti calls for more attractive financial incentives to keep top athletes in bobsleigh in the long term.
The fact that the Swiss heyday of bobsleigh was some time ago has not escaped Beat Hefti's notice. He is the 2014 Olympic champion in Sochi, world champion, multiple European champion and overall World Cup winner in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh.
He believes that the federation and others are avoiding reality. "I keep hearing on TV that there are problems with the material," says Hefti in the talk show "Legends for eternity" on blue.
But the material is as good or as bad as it used to be, says Hefti. "Our start times have simply become too bad. That's where I would put the lever." Hefti also believes that the association lacks the will to look beyond its own horizons. "I always wanted to show that it's a good idea to bring people from other sports into bobsleigh."
Hefti, who retired long ago, became Swiss champion
He cites the former track and field athlete Dominik Schläpfer as an example. With him as push athlete, Hefti celebrated an astonishing comeback in 2020, more than two years after his last World Cup race: Hefti as pilot and Schläpfer as push athlete became Swiss champions in the two-man bobsleigh. "Dominik in particular is still proving today what opportunities it offers to incorporate ideas from other sports."
The explosiveness, speed and agility of a track and field athlete are also useful in bobsleigh. The most famous example worldwide? The Jamaican sprinters who thundered through the ice track in Calgary in 1988 and whose lives were filmed in 1993 with comedian John Candy (1950 to 1994) in "Cool Runnings".
In addition, what has always been true in football and other world sports also applies to bobsleigh. Hefti also affirms this. He says: "I would make sure that the best athletes get into bobsleigh and stay in the sport - but that's not possible without more lucrative bonuses."
