Last week, on Saturday 19th February, I refereed a junior freestyle wrestling tournament in Schmitten, Fribourg, Switzerland. A (normally) yearly event in a (normal) year. And this time it turned out to be one of the biggest Swiss tournaments ever in terms of the number of participants, thanks in part to the recent lifting of almost all pandemic restrictions. A whopping 297 wrestlers from all over Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Germany (as far as Cologne, 600 km away!) gathered in the Turnhalle Gwatt for an intense day of more than 600 bouts. The weigh-in started at 9:00 and the competition finished well after sunset at 19:30, which all in all is not too late for a tournament of this scale.

Such an event would be absolutely impossible without all the volunteers, helpers, organisers, coaches, and my colleagues referees. Mutual support is essential to ensure that such opportunities are offered to our youth after 2 years of almost no competitions.

For example, as the head of the referees of the region, I had to make sure that enough judges were available for this day. A task which is quite mundane in and of itself, but which is now challenging as our numbers are dwindling year after year. Thanks to the help of the other regions in Switzerland, I was able to call 7 colleagues to ensure a smooth operation on that day. This number is the bare minimum when the competition unfolds on 4 different mats for such a long time.

The video shows the final of the U17 under 42 kg category, of which I was the referee. You can see that everyone in the hall is exhausted since it is the end of the day. In the corner of the mat opposite of the camera, you can see the two coaches of the wrestler in red. The one sitting on the ground is none other than Stefan Reichmuth, who recently earned a well-deserved diploma at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

This just goes to show that no matter their status, everyone is willing to help. Our federation is very small compared to the other national Olympic associations, so this kind of selflessness is important.

Once again, I thank everyone who participated and lent a hand to organise this tournament. Everything went well and quickly, and the next generation of wrestlers is coming strong!

PS: This year, I will officiate at Zagreb’s Croatian Open (30.04) and at the European U17 Championships in Bucharest, Romania (13-19.06), both UWW tournaments. I will be a candidate for promotion to the second-highest category of international referees at the latter. Wish me luck!