Fabio Hiltbrunner puts the fear of God into the best wrestlers in the country. At the age of 19, he climbed to the top on Sunday to win a federal event. As a child, he discovered the joy of wrestling partly because of the Gabentempel.
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- Fabio Hiltbrunner is the winner of the Federal Anniversary Wrestling Festival in Appenzell.
- Hiltbrunner's sporting career began with football. But he soon stopped enjoying football, partly because there were no prizes. "Only the club got anything," he once said as a 9-year-old.
- Today, the 19-year-old scoops prize after prize. The reward for his victory in Appenzell: Zenita cattle.
Fabio Hiltbrunner is the man of the moment. What the 19-year-old from Bern has hinted at in the current season, he put into practice on Sunday at the Swiss Jubilee Wrestling Festival. The youngster is able to keep up with the Swiss wrestling titans and even more: Hiltbrunner can literally bury them in the sawdust.
Three Swiss wrestlers experienced the Emmental native's offensive style at the season's highlight in Appenzell. Mike Müllestein, Werner Schlegel and Joel Wicki landed flat on their backs against Hiltbrunner. The audience rubbed their eyes in amazement, especially when Wicki won. The 19-year-old swept the wrestling king onto his back dryly and without a trace - and with the first move. The cheers were boundless.
Shoe size 51 - first big impression in the world of wrestling
Hiltbrunner has won eight wreaths in his still young career, but he has yet to win a wreath. Now he has won a federal event together with fellow association member Fabian Staudenmann. The young man with the shoe size 51 is making his first really big impression on the wrestling scene.
Hiltbrunner learned to win early on. Even as a young wrestler, he was one of the strongest. Now 1.89 meters tall and weighing 110 kilos, as a 9-year-old he was already two heads taller than his opponents.
However, Hiltbrunner's sporting career did not start with swinging, but with football. At some point, he lost interest in football because he didn't win any prizes as an individual player. "In football, only the club ever got anything. We never did. I always had to buy a cheap prize myself," said Hiltbrunner in 2015 on "SRF Kids" as part of a documentary series back when he was a young wrestler.
The lure of the temple of gifts - an irrepressible will to win
So it was the Gabentempel, among other things, that lured Hiltbrunner into swinging in 2012. "At some point I just stopped playing football and then came to swinging. I like it better."
As a child, he dusted off twig after twig. Hiltbrunner built up his strength by felling wood in the forest with his dad. His irrepressible will to win was already evident at a tender age. If he was slowed down by an opponent on the way to the final round, it was hard for him. Nevertheless, as a 9-year-old, he was very reflective: "You don't always have to win, you have to enjoy the sport."
From rabbit to cow
And Hiltbrunner still enjoys wrestling to this day. While he dusted off a rabbit or a cheese box as a young wrestler, he returned from Appenzell to his home in Emmental with Zenita the cow. At the Sumiswald wrestling club, he has quickly matured from a young wrestler to a figurehead alongside Matthias Aeschbacher and Patrick Schenk.
Hiltbrunner is an animal lover and is currently in training. He is a budding farmer - and the latest sensation in wrestling. At the age of 19, the offensive wrestler has entered the history books. He is now the current winner of the Swiss Wrestling Jubilee Festival for the next 25 years.
