The Swiss women have tasted all kinds of curling victory recently, and Binia Feltscher believes a cooking analogy can help explain their dominance.
Feltscher, the 2014 and ’16 world champion, says it’s like baking a cake. Talented teams are the raw material—rinks like Feltscher’s, Mirjam Ott’s and Alina Paetz’s. The outfits now benefit from improved facilities that feature better ice, which means they don’t have to travel to find the best surfaces in the sport. There’s also the influence of Canadian curling guru Al Moore, who’s been coaching in Switzerland and whom Feltscher likens to a whisk that blends all the goodness together. And, with such heated competition in their own country, Swiss squads are battle-tested when they arrive at international events. “The winner knows that their recipe could be a world-championship cake,” says Feltscher.
That’s been the case in four of the past five years, when Feltscher, Ott (2012) and Paetz (2015) have all claimed top spot. (Prior to 2012, the last Swiss triumph at the women’s worlds came in 1983.)
Canadian Ken Tralnberg, who has coached Ott in the past, has witnessed the Swiss rise firsthand. “They invest a lot of time into the sport,” he says, noting that some great male rinks are on the horizon, too. “Their interest in the game is just ferocious.”
And for those who are drawn to the button, Switzerland—which does have a long curling history—offers some unique advantages. As Tralnberg notes, a rural Canadian curler with big dreams has a long way to travel before he or she is rubbing shoulders with the sport’s top players. But in compact Switzerland, the community is much smaller and that allows enhanced access. “You don’t have to go far before you see [the most elite] curlers in the country,” he says.
Those athletes are very proud of what’s happening in Switzerland right now. And they hope to keep it going. “As soon as we are not competing against each other, we help each other,” Feltscher says.