Belinda Bencic is Swiss Sportswoman of the Year!
Belinda Bencic was named Swiss Sportswoman of the Year at the Sports Awards in Zurich.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit:
Dec 13, 2021, 08:06 pm
The year 2021 ends with a great award for Belinda Bencic : The 24-year-old was named Swiss Sportswoman of the Year for the first time in her career on Sunday. The individual Olympic champion from Tokyo prevailed with 26.3 percent of the vote, ahead of mountain biker Jolanda Neff (20.2 percent) and skier Lara Gut-Behrami (17.6 percent).
"I didn't expect to win. Jolanda has been there several times and deserves to win this award," said Bencic after her victory. Neff had also won the gold medal at this year's Olympic Games and even had a three-fold Swiss success.
Bencic, who also won silver in the doubles competition alongside Viktorija Golubic in Tokyo, is the third tennis player to receive this honor after Manuela Maleeva (1993) and Martina Hingis (1997). In the men's race, Roger Federer has already been named Sportsman of the Year seven times.
In 2021, the skier Marco Odermatt prevailed among the men. The other awards went to the national soccer team (team of the year), bike coach Edi Telser (coach of the year), wheelchair athlete Marcel Hug (Paralympic athlete of the year), soccer goalkeeper Yann Sommer (MVP of the year) and biathlete Amy Baserga (SRF 3 Best Talent Sport).