Switzerland – Gymnastics History

1952: The Swiss Olympic Trials for Gymnastics

Although Walter Lehmann won the all-around title at the 1950 World Championships, he wasn’t considered Switzerland’s top gymnast heading into the 1952 Olympics. That distinction went to Josef Stalder. (Yes, that Stalder—the one with the skill named after him.) After claiming the all-around crown at the Swiss Olympic Trials, Stalder went on to win four medals in Helsinki, including a bronze in the all-around.

Interestingly, none of those medals came on pommel horse—the very event where Stalder had earned a perfect 10 at the trials. (The Soviet men swept that event in Helsinki.) At the time, journalists were well aware that domestic scores often didn’t reflect international standards. A perfect 10 at a national meet wouldn’t necessarily hold up at the Olympics. (Though, perfect 10s were possible at international competitions. Stalder’s teammate Hans Eugster earned a 10.0 on parallel bars at the 1950 World Championships.)

Below, you’ll find the final results from the Swiss Olympic Trials, along with a translated article covering the competition. Enjoy!

(Reminder: Switzerland did not support competitive women’s gymnastics at the time.)

Josef Stalder, Image via the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame

1950: The Impetus for Competitive Women’s Gymnastics in Switzerland

In recent posts, we’ve talked a lot about the Swiss men, but we haven’t said much about the Swiss women. Even though Switzerland hosted the 1950 World Championships, the federation did not send any women. As the writer in Gazette de Lausanne noted:

The reason is that the leaders of our federation do not want to put our ladies in competition, considering that the latter is not reserved for representatives of the weaker sex. Are they wrong, are they right?
Gazette de Lausanne, July 18, 1950

La cause en est que les dirigeants de notre fédération ne veulent pas’ mettre nos dames en compétition, estimant que cette dernière n’est pas réservée aux représentantes du sexe faible. Ont-ils tort, ont-ils raison?

Intrigued, I looked into when and how the Swiss women were finally allowed to compete in gymnastics internationally. It turns out that the story is more complicated than it’s normally presented.

For starters, women’s artistic gymnasts from Switzerland had competed internationally before their supposed debut at the World Championships in 1966.

In fact, they had competed at an Olympics—just not the Olympics that you’re probably thinking of.