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Swiss Culture: Traditonal Swiss Sports

Robert Easton

Schwingen, Hornussen and Waffenlaufen

In Switzerland Schwingen (pronounced sh-v-ing-en) has a history dating back at least 800 years. Lonely shepherds tending flocks in remote Alpine valleys needed activities that provided exercise, fun, and the comradeship and company of other people. Switzerland is host to over 100 Schwingen events per year, and there are even Schwingers‚ clubs in the USA.

Schwingen is, of course, traditional Alpine wrestling. Competitors wear oversized shorts, with a slit at the back so the belt can be held onto during grappling.

The aim is to throw your opponent flat on his back so that both shoulders touch the ground. Wrestlers relying mainly on strength wear blue shirts and trousers, whilst the more agile wear white.

A fight usually consists of one round of around ten minutes. The National Schwingen Festival takes place every three years, and the winner has the right to call himself the 'Wrestling King'.

At smaller regional events champions are awarded crowns of leaves The competition is fierce but friendly; competitors shake hands before fights and it is traditional for the winner to help his opponent up and brush the sawdust off his back.

Hornussen has been described alternatively described as a Swiss version of baseball, as a cross between baseball and golf, baseball and hockey, or between lacrosse and cricket. The ball (originally just a stone with holes in it) is a small rubber oval called a Hornuss, or hornet, because of the way it buzzes when hit properly.

A piece of clay is used to stick the ball to a specially designed curved ramp, and the ball is then slapped as far as possible with a whippy two metre long pole with a wooden cylinder at the end. The ball can travel up at up to 300km/h.

The game requires two teams. One team takes turns to hit the Hornuss (two hits each) whilst the other team fields. The fielding team have defensive 'catching boards' called Schindels which they throw up into the air to try to bring down the Hornuss. Scoring depends on how far the Hornuss travels before it lands.

Hornussen has been in existence since at least the 1600s, when a complaint was made about the sport disrupting observance of the Sabbath. Jeriamas Gotthelf, one of Switzerland's most renowned writers, wrote in 1840 that "There is not any game which calls for as much strength, agility, and coordination between hand, foot, and eye as 'Hornuss.

'Waffenlaufen', literally translating to something like 'weapon running', is a sport which has not spread far beyond Switzerland's borders. Competitors first don army fatigues, load themselves down with heavy rucksacks, attach a rifle to the rucksack, and then race off along mountainous tracks.

The course is usually in excess of 20km in length, but can be up to 42km (26 miles), the length of a marathon. Thousands of Swiss take part in such events each year.

The Unspunnefest, a festival which traditionally involves Schwingen, wrestling, yodelling, horn playing, and a stone throwing competition, is held once every ten years.

It was originally held in an attempt to diffuse tensions between different sections of the population, but the latest festival, originally planned for 2005, became a stage on which those tensions were played out.

In stone throwing the competitors lift and hurl a stone, and the winner is the person who throws it the furthest. Ever since 1905 the stone thrown has been the Unspunnenstein, but this year it was stolen.

The stone was stolen once before, in 1984, and it took until 2001 to recover it. That time the culprits were Swiss-French separatists from the canton of Jura.

The same group of people are top suspects again - a smaller stone carrying the emblem of Jura was left behind in place of the Unspunnenstein. The festival has been optimistically rescheduled for 2006, and a different stone will be used.

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