Switzerland Looking for Quality not Quantity at London 2012

NPC Switzerland held media day to inform journalists about top Swiss athletes 02 Sep 2011 By IPC

"We should be equally as strong as in Beijing in 2008. The successes of the past weeks and month demonstrate this."

With 362 days to go to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the National Paralympic Committee of Switzerland held a media day to inform journalists in Switzerland about the top Swiss athletes and their preparations for next year.

The Swiss Chef de Mission, Ruedi Spitzli, expects around 30 athletes to be part of the team in London and is targeting similar results to Beijing where the team won 11 medals.

“We should be equally as strong as in Beijing in 2008. The successes of the past weeks and month demonstrate this,” said Spitzli.

The attending journalists had a chance to watch Para-Cycling world champions Ursula Schwaller and Heinz Frei, Athletics world champions Beat Bösch and Marcel Hug train in the Swiss Olympic Medical Centre, as well as on the track. The test results were consistently positive and underlined the hopes for 2012.

The Swiss Paralympic Committee has set the national standards to qualify for London 2012 quite high. Performance Director Christof Bär said: “We want to focus on quality rather than quantity going into the London Paralympics.”

The 30 Swiss athletes will be amongst 4,200 athletes overall from 150 countries competing in the London 2012 Paralympic Games next year, from 29 August to 9 September. A total of 20 sports are on the programme and tickets to watch the Games go on sale on 9 September. If you would like to sign up for tickets, visit www.tickets.london2012.com.