The development of Swiss wheelchair athletics. The key role of the Swiss Association of Paraplegics (1982-2015)

Abstract

The international achievements and regular participation of Swiss ‘wheelchair racers’ are noteworthy. With 144 medals since 1976 in both individual and relay races, a group of 19 athletes has won 45% of the medals taken by Switzerland in all categories of the summer Paralympic Games. In this paper, we will answer the question: how has this paralympic elite been constructed institutionally since the 1980s, when Swiss wheelchair athletes intensified their participation in the Paralympic Games? By studying the manufacture of this exemplar of sporting excellence through written sources and some 15 interviews, we underline the central role played by the Swiss Group for Paraplegics in the development of Swiss wheelchair athletics. Its novel sports policies were based on considerable human and financial means, an advanced medical environment, good sports infrastructure and the constant recruitment of former champions.

Notes

1. ‘The major symbolic function of sport as spectacle is certainly the staging of Man going beyond his limits, but also and at the same time, that of the affirmation of and research into, the biological limits of Man. (…) The institution of sport ensures a categorical ordering (…) the hierarchical ranking of the two categories “athlete” and “disabled athlete”’ (Marcellini et al. 2010).

2. Beyond those of the South-African athlete Oscar Pistorius are published in France, amongst others, those of Beatrice Hess, Andre Hennaert and Charles Rozoy.

3. Amongst them, most of whom were multi-medal winners we find eight paraplegics (P), ten tetraplegics (T) and one spina bifida (SB) victim. They all climbed the paralympic podium successively for the first time on the dates in parentheses: Rainer Kueschall (T – 1968), Meinrad Cavigelli (T – 1980), Franz Nietlipasch (P – 1980), Heinz Frei (P – 1984), Werner Kaiser (T – 1984), Peter Schmid (T – 1984), Eric Walter (T – 1984), Erwin Zemp (P – 1984), Jean-Marc Berset (P – 1988), Vince Cavicchia (P – 1988), Giuseppe Forni (T – 1988), Daniel Joggi (T – 1988), Guido Muller (P – 1988), Urs Scheidegger (P – 1988), Daniel Boegli (P – 1992), Daniel Kamm (T – 1992), Franz Weber (T – 1992), Beat Boesch (T – 2004) and Marcel Hug (SB – 2004).

4. These two athletes received 42 paralympic medals between them, from the Games of Tel-Aviv in 1968 to those of Athens in 2004.

5. During the world championships of handisport athletics in 2013 in Lyon he obtained five gold medals (400, 1,500, 5,000, 10,000 m and marathon). In 2014, he also took gold in the London and Paris marathons.

6. In 1991, its 25th anniversary, it ‘had 150 active members and 700 non-active ones. The club had become a central facet of the community in Kriens and the inhabitants identified with it’ (Waldispuhl 1991).

7. According to Giovanni Busino, ‘usage ends up giving to the word elite a positive acceptance, the one designating the minority that has, in any given society, at a given time, the privileges that flow from socially valued natural qualities (e.g. race, blood) or acquired ones (culture, merits, aptitudes, etc.)’ (Busino 1992).

8. In 1980, Meinrad Cavigelli and Frantz Nietlispach became the first two Swiss persons to obtain paralympic titles in athletic courses (slalom in a wheelchair).

9. ‘Its industry, one of the few in Europe not to have suffered from WWII, really took off, helped by the abundance of capital, moderate social and fiscal burdens, the possibility of using labour from less advantaged nations and a well-structured banking system’ (Bouquet 2011).

10. In one of his works Christian Pociello devotes a chapter to ‘the social production of achievement’ (Pociello 1995).

11. Created in 1978, the Association of patrons of the Swiss Foundation for Paraplegics took the novel step of financing from subscriptions a grant (200,000 francs since 2008) for its members struck by accidental paralysis and confined to a wheelchair. In 1996, Beat Boesch at 25 years received 150,000 francs given by benefactors. It greatly eased the financial difficulties created by his tetraplegic condition.

12. The revenues are distributed as follows (in millions of francs): gifts and subscriptions (3.4); gift from the Association of benefactors (42.3); inheritance and succession (6.8); income from subscriptions to Paraplegie (7.1), production of the Almanach (0.2); sales of merchandise (0.2);income from real estate investment (14.6); other income (0.6) (Anon. 2008).

13. Guido Zäch explained in 1990 that ‘of the 200 million francs needed for investment, equipment and the costs associated with construction, the Foundation has been able up till now to gather 110 million which it has made available to the Centre. The credit of 90 million extended by a consortium of banks will have to be reimbursed as is proper’ (Zäch 1990). In another magazine of the Swiss Group for Paraplegics a year later, mention is made of ‘the subsidies of the AI that will be attributed to the domain of professional guidance and wheelchair sports’ (Sutter 1990).

14. ‘1 October 2015, Guido Zäch’s 80th birthday, will see the first shovels in the ground for the extension of the clinic. From now until 2019, 32 extra beds will be available to the Swiss Centre for Paraplegics’ (Anon. 2015).

15. The Swiss Research for Paraplegics (RSP) was founded in 2000. Its core work is research into integral re-education, focusing on the interaction of physical, psychic and social factors in the evolution and mastery of the disability.

16. Created 1 January 1977 following the merger of the Swiss Sports Association (ASS) and the Swiss Olympic Committee (COS) with simultaneous integration of the National Committee for Elite Sports (CNSE), it is the key organization of the 85 Swiss sports federations and represents both Olympic and non-Olympic sports. The 85 member federations of Swiss Olympic have 1.6 million members (including multiple affiliations) distributed over 20,000 sports clubs. Its main functions consist of sustaining and encouraging the Olympic Movement and its aims, coordinating the activities of member federations, representing the interests of privately owned Swiss sports to public opinion, the authorities and national and international organizations and promoting the regular practice of sport in society (http://www.swissolympic.ch).

17. The first seven clubs united by the Association of Swiss Paraplegics in 1980 are located in Kriens (club founded in 1966), Ulster (1969), Basel (1972), Biel (1976), Wetzikon (1976), Saint-Gall (1980) and Zurich (1980).

18. For example, in 1995, the first world championships of wheelchair rugby were held at Nottwil. Six years later, in 2001, the first European wheelchair athletics championships took place there. In 2015 it was the premiere of the Paracyclist Route UCI world championships.

19. ‘It is essential to prevent the most paralyzed of athletes from participating less and less in top competitions. We have to resist this evolution on all fronts’ (Spitzli 2010).

20. Between 2004 and 2012, as handbikers, Franz Nietlispach, Franz Weber, Heinz Frei and Jean-Marc Berset won nine medals in Paralympic Games.