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Organization


About the International SAS Pentathlon

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Organization


About the International SAS Pentathlon

Organization

 

 
Ivan WagnerPatron of the International SAS Pentathlon

Ivan Wagner

Patron of the International SAS Pentathlon

 
Rolf RingdalPresident of the Organizing Committee

Rolf Ringdal

President of the Organizing Committee

 
 
Michael Rudin & Florian SchmidContest

Michael Rudin & Florian Schmid

Contest

Martina Gebert

Accommodation

Robert KesslerSponsoring

Robert Kessler

Sponsoring

Samuel Kind, Dario SchioGiant-Slalom

Samuel Kind, Dario Schio

Giant-Slalom

 
SAS NorgeSki Jump

SAS Norge

Ski Jump

Magnus BergaplassTarget Curling

Magnus Bergaplass

Target Curling

Gaudenz FluryCross-Country Ski

Gaudenz Flury

Cross-Country Ski

Ann Grand

Swimming

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History


History


 

History of the International SAS Pentathlon

The idea of the SAS Pentathlon originated in the Scottish Highlands. It was brought to Switzerland in 1978 and the first Organizing Committee consisted of Guolf Gattiker and Ivan Wagner. The history of the SAS Pentathlon, traced back all the way to its Greek Olympic origin, is described in the SAS yearbook «Der Schneehase 1975–1980».

Since the first Pentathlon in 1978 and until 1994 Pierre Hirschy, former Lieutenant General of the Swiss Army and President of the Swiss Ski Federation, has been in charge of the Patronage of the SAS Pentathlon. In 1998, he was succeeded by Ivan Wagner, the former President of the Organizing Committee.

 
 
 

Honorary Guests

The following Honorary Guests attended the previous Pentathlons:



2024 Selina Gasparin

 

2023 Patrick Küng

 

2022 Franz Julen

 

2019 Tanja Frieden

Tanja celebrated her greatest victory in Turin, Italy, on February 17, 2006, when she won the Olympic Gold medal in the Snowboard-cross competition, as the first ever in this discipline. At the end of that winter, she finished 2nd in the overall Sno…

Tanja celebrated her greatest victory in Turin, Italy, on February 17, 2006, when she won the Olympic Gold medal in the Snowboard-cross competition, as the first ever in this discipline. At the end of that winter, she finished 2nd in the overall Snowboard-cross World Cup. Her athletic career began in 1996, lasting 14 years until withdrawing from active competitions in 2010 after sustaining serious injuries in a crash in a race. By that time, her achievements included the silver medal in the 1999 European Championships and a total of 32 top-three positions in the highest ranking international Snowboard-cross competitions. As a true international, she raced for Norway in the beginning and ended competing for Switzerland. And in appreciation of her great athletic achievements, Tanja was named Swiss female athlete of the year in 2006.

Shortly after ending her athletic career, Tanja ventured into charitable and social engagements. She has been an athlete ambassador for Right To Play for many years, and still is. And she is the acting president of the association GoSnow.ch, called to life to increase the attractiveness of snow-related activities and ski camps amongst school children.

In all these activities, Tanja involves herself with great enthusiasm and much energy. Still, she is able to devote time to her successful personal coaching business and taking on assignments as key-note speaker for audiences from the worlds of business and sport. All this in addition to her family life, bringing up her three year old son Luam together with her partner, Marc.

 

2018 Michael Ambühl

Michael Ambühl was born in 1951 in Bern, where he also grew up. He studied Applied Mathematics and Management Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, graduating as a Ph.D. His main areas of academic interest were, and still are, game theory and how people behave and decide in conflict situations. After graduation and some years in the academic field, Dr. Ambühl entered the Swiss diplomatic corps where he climbed the ranks with postings both in the Swiss Capital and at the Swiss Embassies of Kinshasa, New Delhi and EU/Brussels. Michael Ambühl led the Swiss negotiation teams in a series of top level international political negotiations, including being the Swiss chief negotiator in the Bilateral II negotiations with the EU and in Swiss-US negotiations concerning banking. He also participated as mediator in critical international political initiatives such as the relaunch of the dialog between the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (“P5+1”) and Iran in the efforts to restrain proliferation of nuclear technology. Dr. Ambühl became State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ended his career in the Swiss government as the State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
Since 2013, Prof. Ambühl is Head of the Chair of Negotiation and Conflict Management at ETH and lectures in this field with his special penchant for a mathematical approach to negotiations. As of January 1, 2018, Michael Ambühl will be Dean of the Technology and Economics Faculty at the ETH.

 

2017 Dominique Gisin

Dominique celebrated her greatest victory in Sotchi, Russia, on February 12, 2014, when she was the fastest athlete down the course and won the downhill Olympic Gold medal. During the same Olympic Winter Games, she finished 5th in the super combination event. Further great athletic achievements include two top 5 positions in World Championships and 49 top 10 ranks in FIS World Cup races, 3 of them at the very top of the podium as number one. As a sign of her great achievements, Dominique was named female athlete of the year in Switzerland in 2014.

In 2015, after 8 years in the Swiss National Ski-team, Dominique decided to step back from competing at the highest levels to focus her energy on her academic education aiming at achieving her M.Sc. in physics.Next to her academic studies, Dominique studies and trains to extend her general aviation license to the commercial pilot license and she has co-authored the book Making it Happen, building on her experiences of highs and lows during her time as an elite athlete. In what’s left of her leisure time, she is still a passionate skier, and an accomplished golfer with a 10.7 handicap.

 

2016 Urs Schaeppi

Urs Schaeppi is the CEO of Swisscom AG, a Swiss blue chip ICT company. Under Urs’ leadership, Swisscom has strengthened its position in a highly competitive market. Swisscom focuses on building the best infrastructure, creating the best experiences for the customers and realizing the best growth opportunities. The company will continue to be challenged by global technology giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple – all charging for their share of the ICT market.

Urs is also a member of the SAS! Next to his challenging positions in the senior management of Swisscom, Urs was the President of the Central Committee of the SAS from 2010 to 2013. Spending his childhood and youth in Mürren, Urs started skiing very early and became a very accomplished alpine skier, competing in FIS races and racing for the Swiss University Ski Team at the Universiade during his studies at the ETH in Zurich. He has retained his passion for skiing and the mountains and has also conquered the Patrouille des Glaciers in later years.

 

Karl Frehsner has been awarded as the most successful alpine coach of all times. Austrian of origin, he has put his mark on the Swiss ski sports for decades. For 17 years, Karl was head coach for the Swiss men alpine team. During these «golden years» of Swiss alpine skiing, the Swiss team, comprising stars such as Pirmin Zurbriggen, Peter Müller and Franz Heinzer, won 35 world championship- and Olympic medals. The peak was the «gold rush» of Crans Montana in 1987, where the Swiss women won all the five gold medals and the men won 3 out of five, together with silver and bronze in the downhill race.

After these successful years in the Swiss alpine skiing team, Karl moved to the Sauber Formula 1 team, and then back to alpine skiing as head coach for the Austrian women’s team. In this capacity, he added another 18 large championship medals, coaching the Austrians Renate Götschl and Alexandra Meissnitzer to their great achievements.

In 2002, Karl returned to the Swiss women’s alpine team and in 2008 he took on the coaching and support of our own Tamara Wolf in her come-back efforts after her injuries.

2015 Karl Frehsner

 

Beat Hodler is inseparably connected to the history of modern skiing. Not only was he born into a skiing family, Beat’s father Marc Hodler was the FIS president for 49 years, Beat has also wed skiing tradition, being married to Chloé Hodler-Varley, a British alpine skier who participated in the Grenoble Olympic Winter Games in 1968. This “anglo-swiss” connection led to close ties not only to the SAS but also to the Kandahar Ski Club. Only recently Beat handed over his office as the first non-British President of this historic and traditionally rich Club founded by Arnold Lunn in 1924. Beat started skiing in Murren, where his family has a vacation home and where his father knit close ties to one of the founding fathers of the SAS, the late honorary SAS member Walter Amstutz. Since his youth, Beat maintains close ties to Mr. Amstutz’s nephew, Max. The two are frequently asked to hold presentations and speeches about the early history of alpine skiing. Next to his great enthusiasm for skiing, Beat is an enthusiastic golfer with several participations in the Swiss national junior team and many years as President of the Golf & Country Club Blumisberg in Bern. In his professional life, Beat is an accomplished law practitioner focusing on, to no surprise, sports law and nutrition.

2014 Beat Hodler

 

Kjetil André is the most winning alpine skiing athletes of all times. Over the course of his skiing career, spanning almost 20 years from 1988 to 2006, Kjetil André won four Olympic gold medals and five World Championships. All in all, he has 20 Olympic- and World Championship medals from all four alpine skiing disciplines. Kjetil André won 21 world cup victories and the overall FIS world cup in 1994. His career appeared to be over when he sustained a serious ankle injury in 2003, forcing him to miss the 2003/04 season. But Kjetil André made a great comeback the following year and concluded his career with victory in the Super G race in the 2006 Olympic Games. All his merits and achievements qualify Kjetil André Aamodt as one of the most decorated and accomplished winter athletes ever!

These days, Kjetil André is making himself useful to the FIS and to the continued development of the sports of alpine skiing. He has been the athletes’ representative on the FIS commission and was elected to the FIS executive board in October 2012. He is also busy with his own businesses. He has recently set up a race academy to teach young athletes slalom and giant slalom racing. He is a sought after business speaker, leveraging his experience from tough competitions to motivate and help business leaders reach their full potential and improve their achievements. Further to that, Kjetil André supports Norwegian television as an expert commentator throughout the winter’s alpine skiing races and he lends his name to the UNICEF as an athlete ambassador for this organization.

2013 Kjetil André Aamodt

 

Manuela was born 1978, the same year as the inaugural SAS International Pentathlon took place. Manuela is one of the world’s most successful snowboard athletes. She was born and grew up very close to the slopes of the well-known ski resort Lenzerheide and made her first attempts on the snowboard as a thirteen year old girl. Three years later, she came in second in the junior world championship, which prompted her to go for a professional snowboarding career. At the end of her first year as professional, she won the Swiss Halfpipe championship, before her international career really took off: Runner-up in the world championships in Whistler Mountain in 2005 and seventh in the Olympics in Turin the following year. Her biggest single achievement was her victory world champion title in Half-pipe on home turf in Arosa in 2007. In addition, Manuela won the overall world cup in the Half-pipe four times.

Manuela withdrew from her career at the end of the 2008 season, but chose to return in the fall of 2009 to participate in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. She qualified for the event and made a good run for the final, but unfortunately crashed. Following the definitive end of her athletic career, Manuela now devotes her talent and energy as an ambassador for the good of children and nature. In the summer of 2010, she completed her education in Sales and Marketing and she also acts as a promoter for various sports brands.

2012 Manuela Pesko

 

Urs is an SAS member, an alpine skiing world champion and currently the President of the Swiss Ski Federation; Swiss-Ski. Despite his young age, Urs has a number of great achievements in many aspects of life to look back at. Starting with his junior world champion title in 1987, he crowned his career as a world class alpine skier with his downhill world champion victory in 1993. By 1997, his skiing career ended by injuries, Urs had achieved a number top 10 results in the FIS world cup. However, Urs did not rest before he pursued his academic ambitions, completing the BA studies in Business Administration in 1999, obtaining his master degree in St. Gall in 2001, and achieving the doctor title in 2009, in parallel to his professional career. This career has been as steep uphill as the slopes he once raced downhill: CFO in a mid-size international logistic firm three years after his master degree and since 2009 CEO in well-known Similasan, a Swiss pharmaceutical with 130 employees worldwide.

Of great interest to the Pentathlon community will also be Urs’ ascent to the job as President of Swiss-Ski and his ambitions in this office. Urs was surprised to be nominated as a candidate for this role and to be elected in 2006 in a close election. He has proven the surprise wrong with a number of great and well known Swiss athletic success-stories in all skiing disciplines. Urs and his Swiss-Ski management team are also conscious of the broader aspects of ski sports and the hundreds of thousands more or less accomplished skiers in Switzerland. They aim to bring the different aspects of ski sport closer and keep the “Swiss Wintersport Family” alive and kicking

2011 Urs Lehmann

 

Matthias is a SAS member and the Director for the Department of Sports (BASPO) and the top government official for sports in Switzerland, reporting directly to the minister of Defense and Sports. Keeping the positive effects of Sports and Motion as its guiding principle, the BASPO builds the best possible conditions for the people in Switzerland to exercise sports and bodily activities. Further, the BASPO supports all aspects of official sports in Switzerland, from the lowest league junior football club all the way to the top level athletes and contributes wherever possible to their success. In addition, the BASPO is responsible for building the necessary academic knowledge and to educate trainers and leaders engaged in all levels of Swiss sports. The BASPO runs two sports and athletics centers in Switzerland; one in Magglingen and one in Tenero.

These are Matthias’ day-to-day responsibilities. Lately, he has been focusing on the revision and parliamentary consultation process of the Swiss Sports legislation. This law governs the exercise of sports in Switzerland and sets the parameters for the future of Swiss sports activities. Matthias will certainly tell us more about his mandate and main priorities during our weekend in Grindelwald!

Next to his studies and impressive professional career, Matthias has found the time to win merits as an active athlete, first and foremost as a cross country skier.In this discipline, Matthias has won the Björnstad Run, he has finished 12th in the Engadine Ski-Marathon, been part of the SAS relay-team winning the bronze medal at the Swiss cross country championship and finished third in the 1991 FIS Universiade – amongst many other victories he barely remembers!

2010 Matthias Remund

 

2009 Andy Wenzel
2008 Daniela Meuli
2007 Hansjürg Kessler
2006 Stephan Kunz
2005 Bjørn Dæhlie
2004 Didier Plaschy
2003 Conny Lehmann-Kissling
2002 Ivan Wagner, Guolf Gattiker
2001 Gian-Franco Kasper †
2000 Alessandro Melloni (SAI)
1999 Hippolyt Kempf
1998 Max Steinebrunner †
1997 Dr. Hans Nater
1996 Karl Molitor †
1995 Dr. JoJo Clavadetscher †
1994 Rolf Lonnevig †
1993 Toni Innauer
1992 Marc Hodler †
1991 Bernhard Russi
1990 Peter Lunn †
1989 Truls Berg
1988 Adolf Ogi
1987 Dr. Hans Grimm †
1986 Dr. Gilbert Schwaar †
1985 Prof. Dr. Arnold Koller
1984 Dr. Albert Fanchamps †
1983 Dr. Arnold Kaech †
1982 Prof. Dr. Klaus Jacobi †
1981 André Roch †
1980 Willy Bürgin †
1979 Dr. Walter Amstutz †
1978 Lt. Colonel John Morris †

 

Winning teams of the previous SAS Pentathlons
(best individual results)

1978 The Wild Ones 12994
Ueli Bollag 4528
Fritz Bébié 4383
Hansruedi Bollag 4083
(Ueli Bollag 4528)

1980 Cairgorm Ski Club 14237
Bill Hemmingway 4948
Eilif Moen 4919
Garek Begg 4360
(Bill Hemmingway 4948)

1982 Ex Prager 12335
Petr Kakes 4325
Eduard Böhm
4134 Martin Jirsa 3876
(Alex Eitzen 4512)

1984 Ex Prager 13695
Eduard Böhm 4802
Martin Jirsa 4506
Petr Kakes 4387
(Bruno Hammer 4828)

1986 Die Gleitige 13189
Jürg Schweizer 4628
Marc Russenberger
4508 Hans Grüter 4053
(Jürg Schweizer 4628)

1988 Manicolor 13283
Oliver Schmid 4998
Marin Strub 4253
Gregor Schmid 4032
(Oliver Schmid 4998)

1990 The Newhandles 14842
Hans Grüter 4910
Marc Russenberger 4771
Jürg Schweizer 5161
(Jürg Schweizer 5161)

1992 ASCI Innsbruck 15129
Harald Herbert 5493
Konrad Herbert 4833
Hermann Nagiller 4803
(Harald Herbert 5493)

1994 ASCI New Mix 15055
Maria Kurz 5304
Harald Herbert 5059
Hermann Nagiller 4692
(Maria Kurz 5304)

1996 ASCI with Toni 14610
Maria Kurz 4987
Toni Innauer 4530
Hermann Nagiller 5093
(Konrad Herbert 5215)

1998 The Comeback Handles 14736
Jürg Schweizer 4639
Marc Russenberger 5003
Hans Grüter 5094
(Konrad Herbert 5393)

2000 ASCIPlus 14919
Harald Herbert 5128
Petra Längle 4476
Konrad Herbert 5315
(Konrad Herbert 5315)

2002 SAS Engadina 14609
Bruno Hammer 4481
Hans Grüter 5161
Constant Sarott 4967
(Konrad Herbert 5316)

2004 Aged HANDLES 15521
Jürg Schweizer 5521
Hans Grüter 5208
Marc Russenberger 5092
(Jürg Schweizer 5221)

2006 Molson Brothers 14689
Martin Knapp 5022
Matthias Prüssing 4927
Philipp Schnyder 4740
(Martin Knapp 5022)

2008 Global Warming 14228
Felix Gey 4686
Luc Girardin 4868
Carole Jaufferet 4674
(Jürg Schweizer 5191)

2010 Alpine Convertibles 14780
Florian Schmid 5017
Reto Brunner 4819
Marc Russenberger 4944
(Jürg Schweizer 5492)

2012 Team Balloni One 14960
Florian Schmid 5152
Tamara Wolf 5394
Michael Rudin 4414
(Nicole Darbellay 5599)

2014 FloMa Tonic 13704
Marc Russenberger 5364
Thomas Dörig 3672
Florian Schmid 4668
(Marc Russenberger 5364)

2016 Unterwassercurler 13332
Constantin Schrafl 3961
Christoph Nater 4682
Gaudenz Flury 4689
(Thomas Almer 5007)

2018 Blue Blood 13100
Samuel Kind 4449
Dario Schio 4417
Joana Frick 4234
(Thomas Almer 4903)

2022 ZV 2019-22 14336
Thomas Almer 5073
Christoph Nater 4916
Tom Kessler 4347
(Fränzi Aufdenblatten 5205)

2024 Zielsicher 13914
Selina Gasparin 4875
Gaudenz Flury 4695
Martina Gebert 4344
(Thomas Almer 5632)

1979 The Organizers 13098
Ueli Stüssi 4651
Ivan Wagner 4513
Hans Henzi 3934
(Sepp Gammeter 5014)

1981 Cairgorm Ski Club 13084
Eilif Moen 4691
Kenneth McDonald 4370
Bill Hemmingway 4023
(Peter Kozma 4808)

1983 The Out-Handles 13279
Hanspeter Denzler 4625
Marc Russenberger 4515
Jürg Schweizer 4139
(Hanspeter Denzler 4625)

1985 Ex Prager 13487
Eduard Böhm 4518
Martin Jirsa 4417
Georg Schönhofer 4552
(Harald Herbert 4657)

1987 The Newhandles 13564
Jürg Philipp 3968
Marc Russenberger 4675
Jürg Schweizer 4921
(Jürg Schweizer 4921)

1989 I Tre Mona 13732
Alessandro Melloni 4617
Andrea Fraschini 4149
Stefano Melloni 4966
(Harald Herbert 5147)

1991 Last Time Handles 13870
Hans Grüter 4471
Marc Russenberger 4853
Jürg Schweizer 4546
(Marc Russenberger 4853)

1993 ASCI Family Affair 14880
Christl Herbert 5208
Harald Herbert 5037
Konrad Herbert 4635
(Christl Herbert 5208)

1995 ASCI Family Affair 15365
Christl Herbert 5244
Harald Herbert 5402
Konrad Herbert 4719
(Harald Herbert 5402)

1997 ASCI Family Affair 15228
Christl Herbert 5067
Harald Herbert 5366
Konrad Herbert 4795
(Harald Herbert 5366)

1999 Molson Lager 14420
Corinne Schmidhauser 4908
Martin Knapp 4715
Jörg Wetzel 4797
(Konrad Herbert 5051)

2001 Molson Lager 14393
Corinne Schmidhauser 4974
Martin Knapp 4767
Jörg Wetzel 4652
(Hans Grüter 5112)

2003 ASCI Plus 14521
Harald Herbert 4829
Petra Längle 4383
Konrad Herbert 5309
(Konrad Herbert 5309)

2005 Molson Brothers 14184
Mathias Prüssing 4811
Andri Staub 4829
Philipp Schnyder 4544
(Marc Russenberger 5303)

2007 Current Handles 15328
Jürg Schweizer 5298
Hans Grüter 5225
Marc Russenberger 4805
(Jürg Schweizer 5298)

2009 Farté à la raclette 14892
Annina Strupler 5404
Carole Jauffret 5162
Felix Gey 4326
(Annina Strupler 5404)

2011 The Comebackers 15334
Nicole Darbellay 5541
Werner Lüthi 4639
Jenny Müller 5154
(Nicole Darbellay 5541)

2013 Heming 14395
Rolf Ringdal 4393
Jan Fredrik Rosenberg 5029
Pål Troye 4973
(Jürg Schweizer 5328)

2015 No Compromise Reload 14057
Florian Schmid 5095
Dominik Metzler 4515
Carlo Schmid 4447
(Florian Schmid 5095)

2017 O-60 Handles 14678
Marc Russenberger 5003
Hans Grüter 4876
Jürg Schweizer 4799
(Konrad Herbert 5183)

2019 ZV 2019 13419
Thomas Almer 4783
Christoph Nater 4760
Tom Kessler 3876
(Constant Sarott 4813)

2023 Tick, Trick & Pepper 13595
Kevin Lanz 4668
Lukas Dellenbach 4550
Simon Hammer 4377
(Thomas Almer 5256)

 

About the
Swiss Academic Skiclub - SAS

 

Founded in 1924 the SAS now has 1200 members in 7 sections (Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Norge).
A regional association of Swiss Ski.
Offers alpine skiing, cross country skiing and alpinism.
Open to all students.
Organizes traditional alpine events with international appeal (Anglo-Swiss, Pentathlon)
Manages the Swiss Student National Teams, Alpine and Nordic.
Organizes, on behalf of the Swiss Federation of University Sports, the University Skiweek which includes the SWUG and the Championships of the Swiss Federation of University Sports, both Alpine and Nordic.
Offers an own race-series with the SAS Cups.
Offers individual solutions for students engaging in top-level sports during their studies.
Promotes grassroots sports (Fun races without licence, introductory weekends)
Emphasizes on the incomparable SAS Spirit, social life and friendship.

For more information visit www.sas-ski.ch.