Our vision
OUR PARTICIPATION IN THE 2028 OLYMPIC GAMES IN LOS ANGELES.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin
„The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.“ *
Interview
The motivation of the Swiss Hockey board is, "the belief in our sporting spirit and the attitude and will of young people to make your greatest dream come true. In addition, the knowledge that we can only master such a mammoth task in the long term."
Frank P. Schneider
Frank P. Schneider,
President Swiss Hockey
… 100 years of hockey, the idea of designing an Olympic master plan and the goal of qualifying for the Games in L.A.
Mr. Schneider, Hockey has been played in Switzerland for 100 years now. Why are you planning the L.A. mission now?
Quite simply, we have not got out of the rut so far. I think that nobody dared to address the seemingly and impossible goal: We want to go to the Olympics! To be fair, this can only be done with appropriate funding. Swiss Olympic has already helped us a lot, but unfortunately this is not enough to take such a big step. As well as the need for more sponsors and more supporters, we need to get in the minds of young people and show them what a fantastic sport hockey is. Then we have to aim to make hockey, as one of the few Swiss ball sports, one of the main attractions of the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Then hockey will surely become more popular in Switzerland.
Exciting. And what will happen next? You want hockey to become more popular, how do you want to do that?
The first step is to get the financial resources. In order to execute this, we now have a board of professionals. All are successful in their own rights and together we can use our experiences in the best sense to implement our ideas. Of course, everything is pro bono. Therefore it is important that we start with the clubs and the young players. Coupled with trainer/ referee educational programs and a new and competitive league, we aim to significantly improve the quality of the games played and increase the numbers of players. We will start with the 10-12 year olds and help to develop them into the top players of tomorrow. From this pool, we will recruit the future stars for our national teams.
L.A. 2028 – what exactly are your stake here?
Our duty is qualification! However, everything depends on a lot of factors that we cannot influence yet. We want to create competitive teams which can deal with all the circumstances of a competition on their own and to be successful. This is part of our philosophy. The mind plays just as much as an important role as to an outstanding physical constitution and technical skills.
There is still a long way to go before 2028, what makes you so confident that you will continue along this path for so long?
The belief is in our sportsmanship, our attitude and will of the young players to fulfill their greatest dream. In addition, the knowledge that we can only manage such a mammoth task in the long term. It simply takes time to create professional structures in all areas.