Top athletes supported by Swiss Olympic

The journey from young talent to competitive athlete
An athlete’s choice of sport is primarily influenced by his or her inner circle of family and friends. Studies have shown that the parents play a crucial and formative role throughout the entire athletic career. Elite athletes also serve as role models for young people and provide additional motivation. Clubs and national associations are also very central at the institutional level. For young athletes in Switzerland, combining education and sport is of great importance. Nowadays, special training centres enable a better balance of sport and school.
The journey from young talent to competitive athlete is often only feasible with external financial support. The majority of athletes earn a relatively modest income from competitive sport. The median annual salary for professional athletes in 2010 was 25,000 Swiss francs, and only about 25% of athletes receive a monthly salary based on their sport activity. Because of this, approximately 60% of professional athletes combine sport and work. The most important employers in team sports are clubs, and various employers such as sponsors and associations are important in both individual and team sports.

Swiss Olympic (Talents) Cards
In Switzerland, athletes are supported especially by Swiss Olympic, the Swiss Sport Aid Foundation and the federal government. Support and funding instruments range from specific services, profit contributions, sponsorships and awards, to the possibility of participating in an elite sport training seminar held by the Swiss Army during compulsory military service. This support is acknowledged in the Swiss Olympic (Talents) Cards. These are registered and awarded annually by Swiss Olympic based on defined allocation guidelines. Continuous selection and increasing sponsorship efforts help talents as they approach the national elite, and subsequently support them on the way to the Olympic Games.
According to Swiss Olympic, young talents are junior athletes who are systematically sponsored and trained for competition by a national association in accordance with its junior sponsorship framework on three sponsorship levels: Local, Regional and National. This systematic sponsorship is characterised by regularity (high training effort), sustainability (integration into a national association’s junior sponsorship framework) and quality (of trainers and selection). These three features define the talents.