Ivo Rüegg (born 15 April 1971) is a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
*Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internati ...
bobsled
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Fede ...
der who competed between 1996 and 2010.
He won five medals at the
FIBT World Championships
The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non- Winter Olympic ...
with two golds (Two-man:
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
, Four-man:
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...
), two silvers Two-man: 2007, Mixed team: 2009), and a bronze (Mixed team: 2007).
Rüegg grew up in
Tuggen
Tuggen is a municipality in March District in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.
History
According to Walafrid Strabo the Irish missionaries Columban and Gall arrived at Tuggen around the year 610. They intended to settle in the area, but fled ...
and took part in several different sports in his youth, including skiing, gymnastics, athletics, football and ice hockey. He acted as a forerunner for the prestigious
Lauberhorn
The Lauberhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, located between Wengen and Grindelwald, north of the Kleine Scheidegg. Its summit is at an elevation of above sea level.
Lauberhorn ski races
The mountain is best known for ...
downhill race in
Wengen
Wengen () is a mountain village in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland. Located in the canton of Bern at an elevation of above sea level, it is part of the Jungfrauregion and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells ...
, and also competed in Europa Cup and FIS Tour alpine skiing events before leaving the sport in the early 1990s due to back problems. In addition he competed in
steinstossen
Steinstossen is the Swiss variant of stone put, a competition in throwing a heavy stone. Practiced among the alpine population since prehistoric times, it is recorded to have taken place in Basel in the 13th century. During the 15th century, it i ...
(stone-throwing) competitions (winning multiple national individual and team titles) and decathlon during the 1990s, breaking the decathlon points record for the canton of
Schwyz
The town of Schwyz (; french: Schwytz; it, Svitto) is the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.
The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the ...
in 1994 and 1996 and setting a personal best of 7,071 points.
He first tried bobsleigh as a push athlete in 1992, before starting as a driver in 1996
and taking the Swiss junior title the same year and taking two bronze medals at the 1997 Junior World Championship.
In his subsequent career he won one bronze and five silver medals in the
Bobsleigh European Championship
The European Bobsleigh and Skeleton Championships is the main bobsleigh and skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable o ...
, one World Cup race (a two-man event at
Cesana Pariol
Cesana Pariol was the venue for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The track, built for the games, is located in Cesana. The venue holds approximately 7,130 spectators, of whom 3,624 are seated.
Cons ...
in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...
)
and four Swiss national titles (two in each of the two-man and four man disciplines).
Rüegg competed in two
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
, earning his best finish of fourth in the two-man event at
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...
in
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
.
He won the
Bobsleigh World Cup
The Bobsleigh World Cup is an annual bobsleigh competitions. It has taken place since the 1984 Winter Olympics
The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games ( Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske ...
championship in the two-man event in
2009-10. In May 2010 he announced his retirement from top-level sporting competition.
Ivo is the nephew of
Tony Rüegg
Tony Rüegg is a Swiss bobsledder who competed in the early 1980s. He won two bronze medals in the four-man event at the FIBT World Championships, earning them in 1981 and 1982.
He is the brother of Max Ruegg, the father of Ralph Rüegg
R ...
and
Max Rüegg
Max Rüegg is a Swiss bobsledder who competed in the early 1980s. He won four medals at the FIBT World Championships with a gold (Two-man: 1982, a silver (Two-man: 1983) and two bronzes (Four-man: 1981, 1982).
He is the brother of Tony R ...
, the cousin of
Ralph Rüegg
Ralph Rüegg (born 23 May 1973) is a Swiss bobsledder who competed from 1998 to 2006. He is best known for his third-place finish in the four-man event of the Bobsleigh World Cup championship in 2002-3.
Rüegg's best finish in the FIBT World Cham ...
, and the brother of Reto Rüegg, all of whom were also bobsledders.
References
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Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931
1971 births
Living people
Sportspeople from the canton of St. Gallen
Swiss male bobsledders
Olympic bobsledders for Switzerland
Bobsledders at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Bobsledders at the 2010 Winter Olympics
21st-century Swiss people
{{Switzerland-bobsleigh-bio-stub