**Badge of the military training school for top-level sporting recruits** VBS/DDPS / Alex Kühni

Top-level sport in the armed forces

The Swiss Armed Forces have been deliberately cultivating the sporting skills of talented recruits for 20 years. Despite encountering initial opposition, the programme has achieved impressive results, including Olympic medals and World Cup winners.

Chiara Zgraggen

Chiara Zgraggen is a journalist and history student at the University of Lucerne and works as a research assistant at Swiss Sports History and the Institute Cultures of the Alps.

In 2004, the newspaper ‘Walliser Bote’ referred to Roger Federer as “the king of tennis players” following his victory over Carlos Ferrero. Similar plaudits are also showered upon other sporting stars, for example when calling for a “doctorate for [Marco] Odermatt” or describing Vreni Schneider in 1994 as “skiing’s first lady”. These examples show that the Swiss press has always been proud of “its” sporting heroes.

However, Switzerland’s sporting legends have not always enjoyed such adulation. In January 1998, Swiss television lamented the drop in performance by the country’s skiers, claiming the Austrians had taken over since the retirement of Franz Heinzer in 1994. On the same ‘10 vor 10’ news programme, Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi declared his goal of bringing the glory days back to Swiss sport. Presenter Ursula Hürzeler commented, “Ogi is dreaming about sports stars working in the public sector.” Ogi, the new minister for sport – the Military Department had been renamed the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) shortly before his appointment – did not want to go into too much detail, but he did say that sport promotion needed a broad base if Switzerland were to compete at the highest level on the international stage, no ifs or buts. New ways of building this base were needed, he claimed, which is why Ogi commissioned the Chief of the Land Forces to produce an analysis of the scope for employing elite athletes in the armed forces.

This marked the start of the promotion of top-level sport in the military, as we know it today – despite the role of sport having gradually moved away from the military by the 1970s. Was this tantamount to the remilitarisation of sport?

Both sides of the political spectrum were united in their opposition to “public sector jobs for athletes”

Ogi’s proposal of more extensive links between the armed forces and top-level sport, albeit without any specific dedicated cross-over channels, met with resistance – including from within his own ranks. Werner Vetterli from Zurich, a National Councillor for the SVP at the time and one of Switzerland’s top modern pentathletes during the 1950s, was very much against giving public sector jobs to budding sports professionals. The left wing was equally unimpressed: Bern SP National Councillor Alexander Tschäppät was appalled at the prospect of sports-promotion programmes, as he argued that Ogi was just chasing prestige. Moreover, neither he nor the general public would approve of such a project. Especially in view of the economic situation at the time, with the government having to let go thousands of employees. It seemed as if Ogi’s plan was destined to fail before it even got started.

It was around the same time that the Swiss Armed Forces encountered recruitment problems. Military service was perceived as increasingly unappealing and personnel numbers fell steeply. ‘Widerwille statt Wehrwille’ (a pithy comment encapsulating the prevailing mood of prioritising the avoidance of military service over defending the country), as Swiss television commented at the time. Every fifth recruit was leaving basic training early, and the proportion of men deemed unfit for military service had increased considerably since 1997 to 18%. Ruedi Winet from the ‘Beratungsstelle für Militärverweigerer’ (advice centre for conscientious objectors to military service) even said that, going by the figures, compulsory military service was firmly consigned to the past. The DDPS needed to act urgently. Samuel Schmid, who took over from Ogi as head of the DDPS in 2001, saw this as an opportunity to bring the glamour of elite sport under the military umbrella.

**In 1998, Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi established the basis for promoting top-level sport within the armed forces.** Swiss National Museum / ASL

Elite sport in the armed forces impacted by “unsuitable” professional athletes

Nonetheless, Samuel Schmid was not initially convinced of the benefits of promoting elite sport in the military. The number of men “unfit for service” remained high, the situation was tense despite the approval of the previously disputed Armed Forces Reform 21. Roger Federer and other elite athletes, particularly ice hockey players, were unfit for service. That was one of the reasons why the DDPS chose to address the promotion of elite sport in the context of its armed forces reform. In the end, Samuel Schmid implemented the project “Top level sport in the Swiss Armed Forces XXI”. However, the launch of the military basic training school for top-level sporting recruits ‘Spitzensport-Rekrutenschule’ (abbreviated as SpiSpo-RS) in 2004 was not just a product of Samuel Schmid’s, and indeed his predecessor’s, affinity with sport. The parliament also played its part: while the National Council decided to drastically cut back the defence budget in December 2004, the launch of the ‘SpiSpo-RS’ was left intact. The members of parliament may have seen the appeal of top-level sport as a way to enhance the profile of the military as preferable to mine-clearing vehicles and transport aircraft.

A visit of Federal Councillor Samuel Schmidt to the ‘Spitzensport-Rekrutenschule’ in April 2006 in Magglingen. — Top-level sport together with basic military training became reality under Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid. A visit to the ‘Spitzensport-Rekrutenschule’ in April 2006 in Magglingen. This was incidentally also the first time a woman took part in the programme. Keystone

Switzerland unearths another ace skier

In 2007, Carlo Janka, bronze-medal winner in the giant slalom at the Junior World Championships reported for service at the ‘SpiSpo-RS’ centre in Magglingen. One year later he was one of the top skiers at the World Cup. In 2010, with the Winter Olympics in Canada pending, he undertook intensive preparation to boost his medal prospects. The armed forces offer the opportunity to take what are known as 'refresher' courses as preparation for the Olympics. Carlo Janka paid back the Swiss military for their investment in him by winning Olympic gold in the giant slalom. He was the first Swiss racer to accomplish the feat in 22 years, since Vreni Schneider won gold in Calgary in 1988. And Janka became the second Swiss after Pirmin Zurbriggen to win the ski treble of World Championship gold, Olympic gold and the World Cup overall title.

Carlo Janka in action, 2010 in Austria. YouTube

While Carlo Janka was busy preparing for the winter games on his refresher course, cross-country skier Dario Cologna was involved in the pilot project “temporary military employment for top athletes”. The project offered 14 part-time jobs (50%) for medal hopes. This preparation enabled Dario Cologna to win his first cross-country gold for Switzerland. The ‘SpiSpo-RS’ in 2007 had already seemed to give Cologna’s career a major boost, as he won three gold medals in the U23 cross-country skiing world championships in 2007 and 2008. In Vancouver, the Swiss did not fare as well as four years previously in Turin, but five of the six gold medals were won by military personnel (Simon Ammann, Dario Cologna, Carlo Janka and Mike Schmid). The armed forces had achieved their aim: prestige through top-level sport.

**Swiss-style wrestler Kilian Wenger on the shooting range with an assault rifle at the military training school for top-level sporting recruits in 2012.** VBS/DDPS / Aldo Ellena

The programme has an impressive track record

The figures say it all: the winter sports athletes won 64 medals at the five Olympic Games between 2006 and 2022, 24 more than in the preceding five games. The summer games also showed an improvement: the Swiss won 36 medals at the four summer Olympics between 2008 and 2020, 14 more than in the preceding four games. In the last summer and winter Olympics in 2021 and 2022, about half of the medals won went to military personnel.

And Switzerland took first and second place in the 2023/2024 overall World Cup through Marco Odermatt and Loïc Meillard – both poster boys for the Swiss Armed Forces as they serve in the military. The armed forces have every reason to be happy with their top-level sport programme: “‘Convey emotions, move hearts and give Switzerland something to dream about,’ that is how the armed forces see their role in promoting top-level sport,” said Franz Fischer four years ago when he retired following 22 years in charge of promoting top-level sport in the armed forces. In other words, nothing to do with remilitarising sport. Switzerland is happy to send its sporting soldiers into the competitive arena, but only as civilians: for the country’s (inter)national prestige.

**The armed forces benefit from top-level sport and vice versa: Federal Councillor Viola Amherd with skier Marco Odermatt at a reception in the Federal Palace in 2023.** VBS/DDPS / Alex Kühni

Swiss Sports History

This text was produced in collaboration with Swiss Sports History, the portal for the history of sports in Switzerland. The portal focuses on education in schools and information for the media, researchers and the general public. Find out more at sportshistory.ch

More of: 20th / 21st century Politics Sports Swiss Sports History

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