Elias Pirkheim, a lightweight touches the elite: a new star in Bern’s wrestling sky

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Elias Pirkheim (21), who is slim for wrestlers, takes on the heavyweight Sven Schurtenberger with his 90 kilograms in the second course of the mountain festival on the Stoos. David vs. Goliath. But Pirkheim exhausts the Lucerne Confederate with its agility and speed and ultimately creates a sensation.

It is the decisive victory on the way to winning the wreath and the second asterisk behind his name. That gets whoever wins the wreath at a mountain festival or a sub-association festival. Top players such as Domenic Schneider, Roger Rychen or last year’s winner Josias Wittwer start Stoos’ journey home unadorned.

After the award ceremony, Pirkheim stands between Matthias Aeschbacher and Curdin Orlik for a photo of the three Bernese wreath winners. Here too, the 21-year-old man from Habstetten BE comes across as a representative of the lightweight category.

He has the swing genes

Pirkheim, whose Austrian grandfather came to Switzerland after the war, is a new face in the ranks of countless Bernese talents. His family and godfather, who flew in from Australia, will also be present at the award ceremony. They all rented an apartment in Morschach at the foot of the Stoos. And on Sunday evening the surprising success was celebrated there.

Pirkheim has Austrian roots, but still comes from a Schwinger dynasty. Otto Salzmann, his maternal grandfather, is twice Swiss. He is his great example, just like the legendary Willy Graber, the technical manager of the Worblental swing club. “AuchmWilly has reached the maximum of his physical potential. I learned the defense skills from him,” says Pirkheim. In Adrian Walther, he also has a club colleague who is already one of the best wrestlers in the country.

Pirkheim is not that far yet. But that also has to do with the fact that there are many more things for him besides wrestling. He went to the gymnasium in Bern and was quite exotic as a wrestler there. He does not rule out an academic career, but he is currently retreating to the countryside. He is now doing an internship as a farmer on a farm in Ostermundigen. It starts at 5:45 am and ends at 6:30 pm.

summer in the alps

The quiet young man from the Bernese Mittelland is not someone who subordinates everything to wrestling. “As an athlete I am ambitious and focused. But there are other things in life,” he says. When his goddess falls ill, he grants her wish to spend another summer on the alps. He takes care of the animals and the gods. And last summer he traveled to Australia for two months in the middle of the season. Qualification for Pratteln was still uncertain at this point.

Pirkheim lives with his family on his grandfather’s farm. There are 18 horses there, there are sheep, there are rabbits, geese and chickens. It’s like a farm that needs to sustain itself, but doesn’t have to be profitable. “It is our oasis for animals and people,” Pirkheim calls it. And adds: “Not everything has to be subordinate to the return.”

He appears mature and serene, the new star in the Bernese swing sky. He is back in action in the canton of Bern, qualifying for the highlight of the season at the Unspunnen-Schwinget is a desirable goal.

One thing is clear: Sven Schurtenberger isn’t the last heavyweight to grit his teeth against this agile and tough defensive performer. Even though Pirkheim says: “You learn to deal with defeats. That’s part of it.”

A soothing serenity that he probably took with him from home, the “oasis for animals and people”.

Source : Blick