Nottwil 2017: Home hopes for Licia Mussinelli

“My biggest dream is to compete at the Paralympic Games one day. Of course it would also be fantastic to win a gold medal. But we will see!”

Licia Mussinelli will be one of four Swiss athletes competing on home soil at the Nottwil 2017 World Para Athletics Junior Championships, from 3-6 August.

Since she launched her sporting career three years ago, the young sprinter and middle-distance runner has competed on the famous Swiss track on several occasions, most recently at the 2017 Grand Prix Series.

Moreover, is the place where Mussinelli regularly trains.

She has not won a medal in front of her home crowd, though, but is expecting that to change when he participates in the Junior Worlds.

“I am very happy about representing Switzerland at Nottwil 2017,” she said. “This track is one of the fastest in the country.” In Nottwil, she will compete in the women´s 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m T53/54 – Youth (U18) events.

Mussinelli, who also attends a business school for athletes in Luzerne, took up athletics only six years ago, attracted to the sport's “speed and the challenge.”

Rio 2016 champion Marcel Hug and two-time Beijing 2008 bronze medallist Manuela Schaer are two Swiss Paralympic track athletes she looks up to.

“Hug worked all the way up and is now on top. Schaer used to be a very good sprinter and is now among the best in the longer distances as well,” she explained.

Mussinelli loves “going shopping with my friends, reading books and listening to music” during her free time, but does not allow none of that to distract her from her main goals in sports.

“My biggest dream is to compete at the Paralympic Games one day,” she said. “Of course it would also be fantastic to win a gold medal. But we will see!”

Live stream will be provided on the International Paralympic Committee's website, World Para Athletics' website and Facebook page and the Nottwil 2017 website.