Olympic challenges and winter sports in Swiss films

Workers pause to take a selfie of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games mascot. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

For the launch of the Winter Olympics in Beijing this Friday, SWI swissinfo.ch has selected four films that show various facets of Swiss winter sports. The films were selected from the range offered by the streaming platform Play Suisse and are subtitled in English. They can be viewed anywhere in the world.

On February 4th the 24th Olympic Winter Games open in Beijing. One of the dominating and traditional sports at the Olympics is skiing, a sport in which athletes from Switzerland usually perform well.

This year Switzerland, yet again, has good chances of winning medals in alpine ski competitions. It is certainly no disadvantage that the slopes of the Olympic skiing races were designed by a former Swiss ski champion: Bernhard Russi. The 73-year-old won gold and silver medals at the Olympic Games of 1972 and 1976 in the downhill race. The skier is a fascinating person with an impressive life story. Watch his portrait in the Swiss streaming platform Play Suisse here:

Downhill skiing races are one of the highlights of the Olympics. Good chances of success this year combined with the Swiss tradition of medals, will ensure that the Swiss population will closely be following this competition.

In Switzerland itself, the spectacular World Cup downhill race on the Lauberhorn is one of the most watched annual sporting events. In addition to the athletic aspect, the spectacle around the event is becoming increasingly important. Breathtaking jumps and difficult passages can prove dangerous, and in extreme cases fatal for the athletes. The film by Play Suisse takes a look behind the scenes of the Lauberhorn race, and how the organisers deal with these rare cases.

One of the Swiss athletes who knows how to win Olympic medals is Selina Gasparin. She came second in the biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Since then, she has married, become a mother, challenging her organizational skills. Once again, she is part of the Swiss Olympic delegation this year. Here is a portrait by our colleagues from the Romanch part of Switzerland.

Switzerland’s geographical location and climate conditions are an ideal combination to foster Swiss passion for winter sports. Most Swiss people do not have to travel far to enjoy snow sports .

According to the Federal Office of Sport, skiing is one of the top 5 most popular sports in the country, along with hiking, cycling, swimming and jogging. This report from the French-speaking part of Switzerland looks into why skiing is so popular in the Alpine country.

SWI swissinfo.ch will continue to subtitle selected films from the Play Suisse streaming platform into English.

Play Suisse is the streaming platform of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and it offers the best in-house and co-productions from the SRF, RSI, RTR and RTS Enterprise Units. Films, series and documentaries, reports and archive gems in the original language with subtitles in all national languages and English.