“Our youth need Switzerland to organize the 2038 Olympics”

I had the chance to participate in the Olympic Games. I know what this meeting represents in the life of an athlete. Years of training, sacrifices, victories and defeats to live, one day, this experience we dreamed of. But there is one thing I have never experienced: playing Games at home.

Being able to experience a World Championship or Olympic Games in your own country, surrounded by your loved ones, your neighbors, your best friends, is something unique. For a young athlete, knowing that this possibility exists can increase motivation tenfold. It’s probably one of the best things you can dream of in a career.

This is why the 2038 Olympic Games represent so much more to me than a few weeks of competition.

2038 is twelve years away. Twelve years is almost an entire generation. A generation to which we can talk about sport, its values ​​and above all its benefits. Because behind the question of the Games lies a much more important social issue.

We talk a lot, and rightly so, about the mental health of young people, the influence of social networks, fake news and this constant solicitation that they face. Sport remains one of the rare places where we can escape, take a break, recharge our batteries and refocus.

New technologies are accompanied by a worrying increase in inactivity, a sedentary lifestyle and even excess weight. We are lucky to live longer and longer. We still need to live better. And today we know to what extent physical activity constitutes a fantastic prevention tool.

I am deeply shocked when I hear that the three hours of compulsory sports at school could be called into question for financial reasons. At a time when health costs and health insurance premiums are increasing, wanting to save money on physical activity for young people seems totally irresponsible to me. Prevention has a price. The indirect costs of inactivity would be much higher than the savings made.

Will the Olympics alone solve the sedentary lifestyle of our youth? I can’t say for sure. But I am firmly convinced that major sporting events can act as accelerators. They make you dream, inspire you and place sport at the center of attention.

Switzerland is a winter sports country. It has the infrastructure, the know-how, a tradition and a real culture of major events. You just have to see the people gathering in the streets during the Tour de France or in the mountains during the ski races.

With the new IOC policy, we have the opportunity to imagine a different Olympic Games: modern, decentralized, organized with existing infrastructure. Games our way. Made in Switzerland.

So yes, I want to have the nerve to say it: if it is not Switzerland which organizes these sustainable and innovative Games, who else could do it?