Swiss National Team 1999-2021

This pretty odd 2020 season is over. Time to select the Swiss Team for the next season.  The end of October the Junior Teams were appointed and now this weekend the Senior Teams. 

A season with very few national competitions and no international competitions at all can hardly provide big surprises but rather the confirmation of ongoing trends.

Overview over the Swiss National Team 1999-2021

Figure of the year

With the retirement of Julia Jakob aka Gross, the A-Team shrinks down to a number of eight athletes. That's five less than five years ago (-Rahel Friederich, - Sara Lüscher, - Judith Wyder, - Julia Jakob, (- Sarina Kyburz aka Jenzer), -Baptiste Rollier, -Fabian Hertner, -Andreas Kyburz, + Simona Aebersold, + Joey Hadorn +Elena Roos)


Also notable are the drop-outs of the former U23-athletes Valerie Aebischer, Thomas Curiger and Florian Schneider after this season (Flos is not done yet). Besides Curiger and Schneider, Egger and Hellmüller add to the group of former U23 overdue to make the step to the A. At the womens side there is only Sofie Bachmann left on schedule from the former U23 group (Aebischer, S.Müller, S.Tommer).

At the same time we see a rising number of athletes in the B-Team. Thus it seems we have now a generation somehow struggling with breaking through. Might well be that this lost season was just delaying the next steps from Gross, Egger, Pezatti, Buchs & co.

Time will tell.

 

Swiss Orienteering Team history 1999-2019

I updated the Swiss Orienteering Team history. Now it is 1999-2019. It is published here

fig.1. Simona Aebersold takes big steps nowadays.(src. swiss-orienteering.ch)

Next year we will miss long time A-team runners and mutiple WOC medal winners Judith Wyder and Fabian Hertner after 10. resp.13 seasons in the Senior Elite Team.

Otherwise only one big change: Simona Aebersold takes the big step into the A-Team from the Junior Team directly. Such did not happen the last 20 years.

Promotions: Katrin Müller and Deborah Stadler (Anschlussgruppe->B-Team); Timo Suter (from Junior Team -> B-Team);Marcia Mürner, Sakia Bruchmüller, Silvan Ullman, Andrin Gründler and Andrin Bieri (from Junior Team-> Anschlussgruppe); Eline Gemperle, Lea Widmer, Siana Senn, Hanna Wey, Jonas Soldini, David Zürcher, Manuele Ren, Pascal Schmid (all new Junior-Team members)

Relegations: Thomas Curiger (from U23->B-Team); Sven Hellmüller (from B-Team->Anschlussgruppe).

Drop-outs: Andrea Roggo and Térence Risse from Anschlussgruppe, Hanna Müller from B-Team. Andreas Rüdlinger, Sven Aschwanden, Alain Denzler and Raffael Huber were all part of the temporary EOC contenders Team dissolved after EOC 2018.

This years aspect of the Swiss Team history is the number of actual members over the years. No big changes here actually, aside with the reintroduction of the Anschlussgruppe, the number rised the last two years.

fig.2. Numbers of members of the Swiss National Team 1999-2019

And a second aspect. Which part of the Team remains, while how many drop out or get promoted to the Team.

fig.3. Dynamics inside the Swiss Team.

 With medians of 40 remaining, 9 dropping out and 10 getting promoted, we can roughly say that 20% of the Team gets replaced per year.

The Swiss Team towards EOC at homeground - Selection history 1999-2018

fig.1. Daniel Hubmann on his way to his 18th season for the Swiss National Team, and of course going strong as always. (Image provided by worldofo.com and taken from Daniels athlete profile)

The Swiss Team communicated the selections for the Teams of 2018.
Elite National Teams
Junior National Teams
Only a half year before the EOC 2018 in Switzerland, the big goal for many Swiss Athletes, we see only few changes on the level of the Elite Team.

Women:
A-Team: Judith Wyder, Sabine Hauswirth, Elena Roos and Julia Gross stay in place but Sarina Jenzer got relegated to the B -Team.
 U-23:  Sina Tommer continues to the B-Team (due to reasons of age). Former Juniors Sofie Bachmann and Valerie Aebischer build the new U-23.
B-Team: Annina Brunner, Lisa Holer, Martina Ruch, Paula Gross and Hanna Müller remain, Sarina Jenzer and Sina Tommer change over (got somehow relegated) from other Teams. Sandrine Müller and Lisa Schubnell dropped out. Kerstin Ullmann retired
Juniors:  Simona Aebersold, Marcia Mürner, Saskia Bruchmüller, Elena Pezzati, Siri Nyfeler remain. Elisa Bertozzi, Katja Brütsch, Eliane Deininger, Anja Probst and Siri Suter got selected for the first time. Debora Stadler and Katrin Müller dropped out due to reasons of age.

Men:
A-Team: No changes. Hertner, Howald, 2x Hubmann, 2x Kyburz ( Indeed A-Team initials promise a bright future for Joey H. and Sven H. :-)
U-23: Thomas Curiger continues, Joey Hadorn advances from the Juniors Team. Jonas Egger and Sven Hellmüller got relegated to the B-Team.
B-Team: Tobia Pezzati, Noah Zbinden, Simon Dubach, Riccardo Rancan, Florian Schneider and Christoph Meier remain. Jonas Egger and Sven Hellmüller come from the U-23. Pascal Buchs comes from the Juniors. Andreas Rüedlinger (after 10 years) and Térence Risse dropped out.
Juniors: Andrin Gründler, Timo Suter, Silvan Ullmann, Nicola Müller, Chamel Zbinden and Tino Polsini remain. Reto Egger, Marius Kaiser, Fabian Aebersold and Mattia Gründler got their first selections. Joey Hadorn (U-23) and Pascal Buchs (B) took the next step. Nick Gebert and Florian Attinger dropped out due to reasons of age. Oreste Garbani dropped out.

I updated my Swiss National Team history. You find it here. This year I thought, I would answer the following question: Being selected for the Swiss Team for the first time. How long can you expect the party going on? - But I have to admit, that the data collected is not sufficient for the purpose to answer this question. While only covering 20 seasons many of the long careers are not covered either at the beginning or have not reached their ends yet (Daniel Hubmann is entering his 18th season as National Team Member in 2018) . So the answer is as rough as "between 1 and 18 years, maybe."

Some questions that instead might be answered (based on the material presented above) are:
Q: How many percent of the Juniors make it to the Elite National Team?
A: Women: 42 % directly,  3.6% later (f.ex. Elena Roos), 2.4% of the Elite National Team never were member of the Junior National Team.
Men: 39.6% directly, 4% later (but career never lasted longer than 2 seasons).

17th season in the Swiss National Team for Baptiste

The selections for the Swiss National Senior and Junior- Team have been published yesterday.

Changes for the new season 

fig.1. After 12 seasons with the National Team Sara Lüscher retired. (WorldofO.com; Sara Lüschers athlete profile)

Retired/not selected: Sara Lüscher (29, A), Bettina Aebi (25,B), Marion Aebi (22, B), Andrea Roggo (20,J), Laura Diener (20,J), Sonja Borner (18,J), Remo Ruch (20,J), Jannis Schönleber (19,J)

In came: Valerie Aebischer (18,J), Katrin Müller (18,J), Deborah Stadler (18,J), Simona Aebersold (17,J), Marcia Mürner (17,J), Sebastian Baumann (19, J), Nick Gebert (18,J), Andrin Gründler (17,J)

Upgraded: Sven Hellmüller (20, J->U23), Kerstin Ullmann (20, J->B), Lisa Schubnell (20, J->B), Sandrine Müller (20, J->U23)

Years in the National Team (incl. 2016)

fig.2. The Nestor of the Swiss National Team: Baptiste Rollier looking forward to his 17th season in the red-white dress. (WorldofO.com; Baptiste Rolliers athlete profile)

Baptiste Rollier 17 seasons
Daniel Hubmann 16
Fabian Hertner 14
Andreas Rüdlinger 14
Rahel Friederich 13
Judith Wyder 11
Andreas Kyburz 11
Raffael Huber 11
Sabine Hauswirth 10
Martin Hubmann 10
Matthias Kyburz 9
Julia Gross 8
Sarina Jenzer 8
Florian Howald 8
Alain Denzler 7
Florian Schneider 6
Elena Roos 5
Lisa Holer 5

Overview Swiss National Team Since 1999

I updated the chart with the selection dynamics since 1999.

Andreas Kyburz modifies the rules

Swiss Selections 2014

The selections for the Swiss National Team are out now (seniors - juniors). There we can see the following changes for the season 2014:

freshly selected: Paula Gross, Laura Diener, Hanna Müller, Kerstin Ullmann, Jan Brunner, Thomas Curiger, Tobia Pezzati, Janis Schönleber, Noah Zbinden, Patrick Zbinden (all J) and Lilly Gross (B)

upgraded: Sabine Hauswirth (B->A), Marion Aebi (J->B), Martin Hubmann (B->A), Andreas Kyburz (B->A), Florian Schneider (J->U23), Christoph Meier (J->B)

retired: Simone Niggli, Matthias Leonhardt, Matthias Merz (all A) , Seline Stalder, and Severin Howald (both B).


deselected: Térence Risse, Isamel Röthlisberger, Simon Wenger, Sebastian Gygax (all J), Franziska Dörig and Sophie Tritschler (both B)

fig.1. Up up up: Andreas Kyburz in the run in of his first WOC final (Sprint 2013 // picture: WorldofO.com // Andreas Kyburz Athlete Profile)

Selection dynamics since 1999

 fig.2 The end of a loooooong career.

I updated the chart with the selection dynamics since 1999.

Modifying the rules
Last year o-zeugs defined a set of unwritten rules describing the selection dynamics for the 2013 mens team and some prognoses where made. Martin Hubmann and Florian Schneider got their upgrades and Andreas Kyburz broke rule 2 (while rule 3 was wrong from the beginning). Here are the modified rules in recent mens selection history:

1. No runner, not directly upgraded from the junior team to the senior team made it into the senior team later on. (unchanged)
2. No athlete which did not made it into the U-23 (=under the frist three years as a senior) was later upgraded into the A-team (modified)
3. (omitted)
4. The lastest chance to make it into the A-team is after the fifth season. (unchanged)
5. To directly make it into the U-23, you have to win a JWOC medal. (unchanged)

We are family

• Bettina and Marion Aebi
• Paula, Lilly and Julia Gross
• Matthias and Andreas Kyburz
• Daniel and Martin Hubmann
• Mjriam and Sven Hellmüller

We have family (athletes having family members which formerly where selected)

• Ines Brodmann,
• Rahel Friederich
• Laura Diener
• Florian Howald
• Yves Aschwanden
• Joël Borner
• Thomas Curiger

not sure about: Judith Wyder, Sarina Jenzer

OL Nationalkader 2013 - Analyse

 Regeln
Ich schaue nochmal genauer auf die aktuellen Selektionen für das Nationalkader der Herren bzw. deren Selektionsgeschichte. Es finden sich folgende Grundmuster:

1. Kein Athlet, der nicht direkt vom Juniorenkader ins Nationalkader selektioniert wurde, wurde nachträglich aufgenommen.
2. Kein Athlet, der nicht direkt vom Juniorenkader  ins U-23 selektioniert wurde ist später ins A-Kader aufgestiegen. 
3. Wer vom Juniorenkader ins B-Kader selektioniert wurde, blieb im besten Fall dort. 
4. Die Athleten haben sich spätestens in ihrer 5.ten Elite Saison fürs A-Kader selektioniert (m.a.W. sind in der 6.ten ins A-Kader aufgestiegen).
5. Die letzten 9 ins U-23 selektionierten Athleten, haben zuvor mindestens eine Medaille an der Junioren WM gewonnen.

Hypothesen
Selbstverständlich, diese Regeln sind nich fest, sondern sind momentaner Natur.

Haben diese Regeln aber nächstes Jahr Gültigkeit, so wird...

Florian Schneider  2014 ins U-23 selektioniert...

... und Martin Hubmann wird 2013 ins WM-Team und 2014 ins A-Kader nachstossen. Natürlich werden da einige alles daran setzen die herrschenden Gesetzmässigkeiten zu überwinden.

 

... wir dürfen gespannt sein.

OL Nationalkader 2013

Abb.1.Schweizer Nationalkader 2013 anhand des Teamfoto 2005. Altmeister Marc Lauenstein tritt zurück, Seline Stalder gab ihr Comeback.

Abgänge: Marc Lauenstein (A), Phillip Sauter (B), Sven Aschwanden (J), Lukas Diener (J), François Borner (J), Sandro Vock (J), Caroline Cejka (B), Isabelle Feer (B), Brigitta Mathys (B), Katja Gygax (J), Anina Brunner (J), Thalia Bertschinger (J),
Abstiege: Martin Hubmann (U->B)
Aufstiege: Sara Lüscher (B->A), Alain Denzler (J->B), Sarina Jenzer (B->U)
Zugänge: Seline Stalder (B, Comeback), Joel Borner (J), Sebastian Gygax (J), Sven Hellmüller (J), Remo Ruch (J), Salome Schweizer (J), Sandrine Müller (J), Andrea Roggo (J), Lisa Schubnell (J)

Kuriosa: gleich zwei Geschwister (Borner, Gygax) geben sich die Klinke in die Hand.

Abb.2. 43% aller Mitglieder des JuniorInnen-Kaders werden für ein Elitekader selektioniert. Von den nicht selektionierten hat es seit 1999 keiner ins SeniorInnen-Kader geschaft (Brigitte Mühlemann war nie im Juniorinnen-Kader). Screenshot der Übersicht Schweizer Nationalkader 1999-2013 ->Link