Ruth Metzler-Arnold elected president of Swiss Olympic

Ruth Metzler-Arnold (60 years old) is the new president of Swiss Olympic. The former federal councilor was elected with 329 votes for a four-year mandate which will begin on January 1, 2025, Friday by delegates of the Swiss Sports Parliament.

The Appenzeller, whose candidacy had been endorsed by Swiss Athletics and supported by influential federations such as Swiss Volley, Swiss Aquatics and the Swiss Gymnastics Federation, was preferred to Grison’s Markus Wolf (162 votes), who had been nominated by Swiss Ski.

For the record, Vaudois Sergeï Aschwanden, Olympic judo medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, withdrew his candidacy on October 21 because he did not consider himself sufficiently supported.

Ruth Metzler-Arnold, who has taken on various roles in the economy, society and sport since she was not re-elected to the Federal Council on December 10, 2003, said that her goal “is to continue to develop Swiss Olympic as an organization: preserve its strengths, identify its optimization potentials and support the federations with a service orientation, transparency, efficiency and minimal bureaucracy.”

She added: “As a bridge builder between business, society, politics and science, I look forward to bringing my many years of strategic and operational leadership experience to the service of sport.” A mandate which will probably be placed on the seal of the Swiss candidacy for the 2038 Winter Olympics.

She will succeed Zurich resident Jürg Stahl, who chaired Swiss Olympic for eight years.