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Looking for successors of Bencic and Odermatt

When the golden carpet is rolled out in the Zurich Leutschenbach television studios in December, Swiss sports stars appear in evening dresses or business suits instead of the usual sportswear. The snow sports contest will need to dress warmly on Sunday night. No less than four Olympic champions and two Olympic champions from the Beijing Winter Games, who were very successful from a Swiss point of view, entered the twelve candidates.

One of them is Marco Odermatt, last year’s winner. With the Olympic gold in the giant slalom and the triumph in the overall World Cup, the 25-year-old from Nidwalden once again provided important arguments to become his successor in the election of athlete of the year. The last person to do so was record winner Roger Federer in 2007.

A regular guest and four newcomers

Last but not least, Odermatt gets competition from their own field. As an Olympic champion in the supreme discipline of downhill, Beat Feuz also has an excellent reference. The 35-year-old Emmentaler was shortlisted for the sixth time, but never managed to take home the coveted prize. Mountain biker Nino Schurter was nominated for the thirteenth time. The 2018 Swiss athlete won his tenth World Cup gold this year and the overall World Cup for the eighth time. With wrestling king Joel Wicki and up-and-coming decathlete Simon Ehammer, there are also two newcomers. The sextet is completed by the Ticino swimmer Noè Ponti, this year’s world and European medalist.

Of the six nominated women, Lara Gut-Behrami (2016) and Mujinga Kambundji (2019) also know the wonderful feeling of being named Sportswoman of the Year on stage; Last year’s winner, Belinda Bencic, did not make the shortlist this year. With the alpine athletes Corinne Suter (downhill) and Michelle Gisin (combined) and the freeskier Mathilde Gremaud (slopestyle), three other Olympic champions from Beijing compete for the favor of the public. The field of candidates is completed by the cyclist Marlen Reusser. The Sports Awards are new territory for the European time trial champion and World Cup third-place finisher, as well as Gremaud.

Four more awards

A total of six prizes will be awarded in the televised gala. Nominated as Team of the Year are beach volleyball duo Tanja Hüberli/Nina Brunner after silver at the European Championships, men’s national soccer team after successfully qualifying for the World Cup, and mountain bike medley relay for winning the World Cup in team competition.

Successful Union Berlin coach Urs Fischer, Nicolas Siegenthaler, private coach Nino Schurter, and René Wyler, who turned Simon Ehammer into a world-class athlete, are in the final round for coach of the year. In the category of Paralympic athletes, the series winner Marcel Hug will be challenged by Catherine Debrunner and Manuela Schär. The following sextet is available in the MVP division: Roman Josi (ice hockey), Kerstin Kündig (handball), Alina Müller (ice hockey), Noel Ott (beach soccer), Lia Wälti (soccer), Granit Xhaka (soccer).

The live broadcast, moderated by Rainer Maria Salzgeber and now Fabienne Gyr, starts at 20:05 and is broadcast on SRF 1, RTS Deux and RSI LA 2.

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