Switzerland
History of wheelchair floorball in Switzerland.
Floorball (In Switzerland it’s called Unihockey) has a long tradition in Switzerland. Floorball has been played in Switzerland since the 1970s. The Swiss Floorball Association was founded in 1985. I remember well as a child, floorball was played at school in the sport lessons. Now, there are more than 30,000 licensed players in Switzerland. Meanwhile, playoff games and the SuperFinal of the highest national league are broadcast live on Swiss television.
09.08.2012: Team Switzerland, first international Game.
Wheelchair floorball began in the late 1990s when RC Thurgau (Wheelchair Club Thurgau) was founded. Floorball was back then and is still largely played in polysporting gymnastics. Floorball is still a secondary sport in Switzerland. There are 2 to 4 national fun tournaments a year. Disabled and non-disabled people from various swiss wheelchair clubs play there. We play on the small field, with 3 players. There is no national championship. That’s why Floorball is also not run by the Swiss Paraplegic Association as an official sport with support.
Around the year 2010, we were contacted by Petr Alina who told me that there is an international floorball tournament in Prague. In 2012 I was able to motivate people to travel to Prague and to dare this adventure. Team Switzerland was a motley team of players from Zurich, St. Gallen and Thurgau. Until then we had never played on the big field (5 vs. 5). And never together. We only had short sticks (max. 80cm), because that was our national rule. As expected, we didn’t stand a chance and were last.
2013 we were at the Paragames in Breda. There we realized, that if we don’t practice together on the big field it makes no sense to continue participating in tournaments.
After our 2nd Prague Wheel Open in 2014, the Team Suisse was founded, and the RC Thurgau organized a regular (about once a month) practice on the big field.
Since then, Team Suisse regularly participates in international tournaments.
Breda 2015, 4th Place
Our international home tournament, the Swiss Wheely Open was held in 2015 for the first time in Nottwil. In 2018 with 13 teams from 10 countries from 3 continents, the Swiss Wheely Open became the largest international tournament in the world.
This success is largely due to the initiative and work of RC Thurgau. We can also count on numerous long-standing sponsors who support both Team Suisse and the Swiss Wheely Open. Without them, that wouldn’t be possible.
Prag 2018, 5th Place
With the 4th place in Breda 2015 and the 5th final rank at the Prague Wheel Open 2018, the biggest successes for Team Suisse could be achieved. Urs was chosen as the best goalkeeper of the PWO 2018 tournament. After the award for Fabienne to the best female player of the PWO tournament in 2016, this was the second personal award of a player from Team Suisse in Prague.
Unfortunately, there are still too few players in Switzerland. In most tournaments our team consists of only 6 to 8 players. And in the practice sessions we can rarely train 5 against 5. But those who are there are fully committed and always do their best for Team Suisse.