On Friday evening 128 Swiss athletes will float down the River Seine in Paris as part of the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 66 men and 62 women will be joined by more than 10,000 other elite athletes, who over the next fortnight will be fighting it out for 329 medals in 32 sports. Rifle shooter Nina Christen and cross-country cyclist Nino Schurter, both Olympic gold medallists, will be carrying the flag on the Swiss boat. “We’re ready and well prepared,” Ralph Stöckli, head of the biggest Swiss delegation since Los Angeles in 1984, told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. However, after the Swiss excelled themselves by pocketing 13 medals in Tokyo three years ago, this time Stöckli hasn’t set a medal target for the 24 disciplines in which the Swiss are taking part. No Swiss is in the running – or spinning and flipping – for a medal in breakdancing, which is making its Olympic debut. “Let’s be realistic: on average, Switzerland has won five medals in the Summer ...
