Odermatt and Gut-Behrami elected Swiss athletes of the year

Sports Awards –

Odermatt and Gut-Behrami are elected Swiss athletes of the year

Two skiers won the most prestigious Swiss sporting title like last year.

Published today at 9:10 a.m.

Lara Gut-Behrami (left) and Marco Odermatt.

Photomontage with Keystone

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You had to go skiing to hope to win the most prestigious titles at the Sports Awards in Zurich. Marco Odermatt et Lara Gut-Behrami were rewarded.

Different year, same results. Like last year, Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut-Behrami were elected sportsperson of the year. This is the fourth consecutive award for the best skier in the world and the third after 2016 and 2023 for the Ticino.

With this four in a row, “Super Marco” achieves a first in the history of the Sports Awards. Even the master Roger Federer, crowned seven times, has never done better than two awards in a row. He beat Ticino swimmer Noè Ponti and decathlete and length specialist Simon Ehammer.

Like “Odi”

Winner of his third big globe in a row and three small globes (downhill, giant and Super-G), the Nidwalden has just broken the record for victories for a Swiss male skier, erasing the 40 successes of Pirmin Zurbriggen to bring it currently to 41 victories.

Like “Odi”, Lara Gut-Behrami has made the general classification of the World Cup her own in 2024. The skier from Comano currently has 45 successes, but she is still looking for her first victory this season. She beat pole vaulter Angelica Moser and Olympic champion Aargau fencer Chiara Leone.

No hockey or football for the team of the year. Beach volleyball players Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner received the award. Bronze medalists at the last Olympics, they beat the Swiss men’s ice hockey and football teams. The hockey players gleaned world silver in Prague, while the footballers were eliminated on penalties in the quarter-finals of the Euro by England. Now separated after nine years together, Hüberli and Brunner imitate Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel who won the award in 2004.

Hockey consoles itself

Hockey consoles itself with Patrick Fischer as coach of the year after the silver in Prague. This is its second trophy after 2018 when Switzerland had already won world silver in Copenhagen.

As for football, after Yann Sommer in 2021 and Manuel Akanji in 2023, it was Granit Xhaka who was elected MVP of the year. The captain of the Swiss team beat Kevin Fiala (ice hockey) and Lara Heini (unihockey). Excellent with Bayer Leverkusen, the 32-year-old was also the first Swiss since 1996 to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or.

Grande dame of the Paris Paralympics with six medals including five gold, Catherine Debrunner logically won the Paralympic Athlete of the Year award.