The Swiss are ready for the World Cup coup: four men for a curling hallelujah

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Yes, it’s just a small town, but for once it’s home to a big sport. Schaffhausen is preparing for the men’s curling world championships, which start Saturday and end with the final on April 7.

The city shows its flag. In Schaffhausen the flags are flying and advertising is being successfully advertised. Anyone who has a ticket for the upcoming matches at the IWC Arena should consider themselves lucky. There are still some free places. The crew around Skip Yannick Schwaller presented themselves on Tuesday morning in front of a beautiful backdrop. The Rhine Falls were raging, the weather was friendly, expectations were high.

Last World Cup title 32 years ago

It won’t be a cakewalk for the Swiss team as the best in the world are close by and the tournament has the best players. Scotland, Sweden, Canada, the Italians, everyone wants gold. The Swiss are also fighting to finally achieve what was last achieved in 1992 under the leadership of Markus Eggler (55): they finally want to win World Cup gold again.

Skip Yannick Schwaller (28) has great comrades around him: Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel (32), Sven Michel (35) and Pablo Lachat (23) are fully motivated to make history in the city of Munot. The quartet has been together for almost two years. A kind of all-star team was put together from the former national rivals. “Of course, we had to find each other first,” says the experienced Genevan Schwarz-van Berkel. “But now everyone knows what to do. We have a flat hierarchy in the team and a common goal. We compete to win and we want to continuously improve.”

Two birthdays at the start of the World Cup

Skip Yannick Schwaller will have to take on a major responsibility in the World Cup gold mission. His teammates do not skimp on compliments, but also emphasize that all four of them see each other as equals, regardless of role and age. Sven Michel says about the man from Solothurn: “Yannick is very determined, works meticulously and always wants to win. He conveys this will to the entire team.” Saturday is Michel’s birthday and he turns 36. “It would be nice to go to bed at night with a victory over the USA. We will certainly eat together. “Probably a glass of wine too.”

Yannick Schwaller’s birthday is Sunday. His greatest wish: “That we can look back on a successful start to the World Cup. That would be important.” Michel and Schwaller are used to their birthdays often taking place during major events. So that’s not a problem, just a welcome change.

Football is a hot topic

Pablo Lachat from Vaud is the youngster in the team. His youth is an asset to everyone. “Sometimes a saying, sometimes a joke, that’s part of nine days of focused living together,” he says. And yes, the pressure on the Swiss men has probably not decreased after the Swiss women led by Skip Silvana Tirinzoni had to settle for silver for the first time in Canada last week after four World Cup titles in a row.

From Thursday, the Swiss will be staying in Hotel Vienna just behind Schaffhausen train station. Each athlete has a single room. “That is positive,” says Schwaller. “This means that there are occasional opportunities to withdraw.”

But the team spirit goes beyond curling. The four athletes have plenty of topics to talk about. Football is very important. Schwaller, the Bayern fan, does not run out of arguments when discussing the Bundesliga rankings with Sven Michel, the Liverpool and Dortmund supporter. “We certainly won’t be bored,” both say. And if there are tensions in the team, there is a sports psychologist who can channel them.

Four men at eye level

Benoît Schwarz, the quiet one of the team, can only smile. Equipped with a lot of experience, he always has his emotions under control. Since he is the fourth person to reach for the stones and is therefore responsible for ensuring that the last two Swiss stones are in place, that’s a good thing. Schwarz, who has been called Schwarz-van Berkel since last year because he got married, promises that he will release the emotional handbrake if Switzerland actually wins the World Cup. “It would be something big.” Internally he is seen as the ‘icy guy’ who keeps his nerve no matter how difficult the situation is.

Four men who meet each other on equal terms, who have a common, great goal, who want to use the unique opportunity of a World Cup coup in their own country to immortalize themselves in sport… this starting position promises a lot. Also for the spectators.

Chess on ice

Curling is still a marginal sport in Switzerland, but fascinates both players and spectators. Nothing flies through the air. There are no spectacular waterfalls. There’s no racing or showing off acrobatics, no wheel-to-wheel or hand-to-hand duels, no mistakes and usually no serious injuries. Perhaps it is precisely this calm that captivates you so much.

The facial expressions of the players, captured in close-up for seconds, waiting for the next coup, the next brilliant move that could turn everything upside down. It becomes particularly exciting when the players stand together in a difficult situation and negotiate the next move. It becomes clear to every spectator how much more this sport has to offer than pushing a stone weighing almost 20 kilograms forward 42 meters. This is chess on ice. A game of intelligence and patience, an ode to mindfulness, a wonderful change from the hectic pace that we already have enough of in everyday life.

Source : Blick