Around 1880, women here and there in Switzerland picked up boxing gloves for the first time. With their efforts initially dismissed as circus sideshows, women battled until the 1990s to be allowed to box competitively.

If you want to understand what doing sport is all about in this country, it’s worth taking a look at the historical influence of gymnastics.

On 6 August 1986, Alain Charmey from Vaud became the first person to swim the entire length of Lake Geneva. A press photographer was on the spot to capture the moment.

New York-born Hélène de Pourtalès (1868-1945) of Geneva won gold at the 1900 Olympic Games. Largely unknown today, this pioneering yachtswoman paved the way for other women to compete at the Olympics.

Seeing and being seen is an important social aspect of sport. At one time, this was a particularly notable feature of tennis.

We mentally associate schwingen, traditional Swiss wrestling, with brawny herdsmen fighting a clean fight in idyllic mountain surroundings. But it’s not as straightforward as that. Urban dwellers played a bigger role in popularising the sport than one might think.

How a traditional game from Scotland became a glamour sport in Switzerland, and then went back to being a traditional game ‘of the people’: A brief history of curling in Switzerland

There have been children’s ski camps in Switzerland since 1940. The origins of these camps go back to World War II, and there were serious reasons for them: the camps were intended to prepare young people for a winter campaign.