Jürg Stahl's time as President of Swiss Olympic will come to an end at the end of 2024. The Zurich native takes stock after eight years in office, which were marked by a pandemic, among other things.
"Swiss sport has done pretty well during the coronavirus pandemic. I'm pleased about that," says Jürg Stahl, who attended Swiss Olympic's traditional end-of-year media event in a Lausanne hotel on Tuesday.
Stahl inevitably cites the pandemic as one of the three major challenges that he and his team had to overcome. "Swiss Olympic fulfilled its role as an umbrella organization well. It was important that we were able to remain physically active, even if there were restrictions at times," says the Zurich native.
"There was no long-term damage to Swiss sport, although at the beginning of the pandemic we didn't know what would happen," recalls the former SVP National Councillor, for whom the two other major challenges were the rejection of the Sion 2026 Olympic bid by the people of Valais and dealing with the scandal in Swiss gymnastics in 2020.
Mountain bike triple victory as top moment
Jürg Stahl, whose successor - former Federal Councillor Ruth Metzler-Arnold or former Swiss Ski Director Markus Wolf - will be elected on 22 November, naturally prefers to mention the positive aspects of his eight years as President of Swiss Olympic. "The strongest moment is the sum of all the emotions," he emphasizes.
But if he could only keep one highlight, "it would be the three Swiss flags at the arrival of the mountain bike women in Tokyo." Jolanda Neff, Sina Frei and Linda Indergand celebrated a triple victory. "As president, you have an increased pulse. It was even more special because there were no spectators, no fans," says the 56-year-old from Winterthur.
"And then there was the double victory in ski cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing," Stahl recalls, when Ryan Regez won ahead of Alex Fiva. "They could have only finished third and fourth in the final. And their double victory came after the big disappointment for Fanny Smith." The ski cross racer had initially been disqualified and was only later given her bronze medal back at the green table.
Satisfied with the financial development
Jürg Stahl is also satisfied with the financial development, although Swiss Olympic is inevitably worried about the future reduction in sports contributions envisaged by the Federal Council. "It's always a struggle when you want more money. A lot of work has been done and the contributions to the federations have increased every year," says Stahl on the development, from 35 million in 2017 to 73 million in 2024.
The former National Councillor is also particularly pleased about the good health of club sport, which he says is "very lively". "The clubs have survived the pandemic pretty well. Without grassroots sport, there is no elite sport. And without volunteering, there is no grassroots sport," he points out, although he is aware that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find volunteers.
The importance of youth work has not escaped him. He was particularly impressed by the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. He also regrets "that we were unable to use the positive momentum after Lausanne 2020 to launch a new Olympic project more quickly due to the pandemic".
At the same time, Stahl emphasizes: "We have managed to rekindle the flame." This with a view to Switzerland's bid for the 2038 Winter Olympics.
SDA
