Yannik Schwaller’s curling team wants to go to the Olympics with a secret weapon

The curling team around Skip Yannik Schwaller declares war on the competition. Thanks to more rotation, the team should not only reach for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, but also for gold. After summer training and the first competitions, it is now clear: the new technology works.

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The curlers from Bern Zähringer are not lacking in self-confidence. The Solothurn Skip Yannick Schwaller, the two Aargauer Marcel kaufeler and Romano Meier as well as the Appenzell Michael Brunner openly aim for the highest of all goals. They want to become Olympic champions, to be the world’s best in their sport.

Self-confidence, if not a good deal of courage, required another decision, which the team made in the spring. Converting your own technology before the Olympic winter of all times is not a recommendation from the training textbook.

Everything revolves around the Olympics

The four sworn teammates are also firmly convinced of this risky undertaking. You have decided to massively increase the rotation of the stone on the way into the house – from the usual 3.5 to 4 rotations to 6 to 7 rotations. With regard to the Olympics, things are turning a little faster in the game by Schwaller and Co.

The Swiss copied this technique, which is still unusual in curling, from Bruce Mouat’s young Scottish team. With the more rotating stones, he was the dominant curler of the past winter, won World Cup silver and the two Grand Slam tournaments with 13-1 victories.

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Mouat himself predicted that the competition would fail mercilessly when attempting to copy his secret weapon in the direction of the Olympics. The Schwaller team disagreed, sacrificed the vacation in June and instead drilled the new technique in the curling hall in Baden with the utmost discipline and perseverance.

The quartet is now one hundred percent certain that they did the right thing and that they will have an advantage over the other teams in the future. “The new technology gives us more control and fewer surprises. The stones run a little differently, ”explains Yannick Schwaller. You already have a high level of security with the changed game.

Federer also has to change a technique

The fact that they were already among the best in the world with conventional technology is not accepted as an objection. “Even a Roger Federer changes his technique over the course of his career,” says Romano Meier. “As an athlete, you always think about how you can improve,” adds Yannick Schwaller.

A decisive trump card should be the doubled rotation, especially in the Olympic trials from September 22nd to 25th in Biel. In a duel with Swiss rival Peter De Cruz from Geneva, the starting place in Beijing will be played out. The last two duels at the Swiss championships and the World Championship trials went to De Cruz.

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The Schwaller team wants to avoid the impression that they are too focused on this duel. “When we decided to change the technology, we asked ourselves how we would become Olympic champions. Not how we beat Peter De Cruz, ”says Marcel Kaufeler emphatically. “The most important key to success will be to focus on your own performance,” demands Yannick Schwaller.

But of course one hopes for a certain surprise effect in this meaningful best-of-7 duel. After all, the loser has to wait four years for the next Olympic chance. The project was deliberately not communicated. Because now it is definitely too late for the competition to follow suit for the upcoming winter.

First successes as confirmation

The competition premiere of the double rotating stones was also good for self-confidence. At the Baden Masters in mid-August, the Schwaller team remained undefeated, clearly defeating long-term rivals De Cruz 6: 3 in the final. And at the first tournament of the European Super Series in Stirling, Scotland – practically the hotbed of Skip Bruce Mouat’s new technology – they not only beat “the original” 8: 2 and the Swedish world champion Niklas Edin 7: 3, but won the second tournament victory in the second competition of the season. The Schwaller team now has a 14-1 win.

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The technology should not be the only trump card of the vice European champions of 2019. The four also name the team spirit and the relationship with each other as strengths. “We have grown together even more on our way,” says Kaufeler. And Michael Brunner adds: “It’s the mix that makes us strong: on the one hand, mutual demands and, on the other hand, mutual tolerance.” You have the confidence that everyone will invest everything in sporting success, even if the path to it is different for everyone.

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