Team Swiss has high expectations of its outdoor cyclists at Beijing 2008 despite the risk of inclement weather conditions raining on their Olympic parade.
"Our overall top medal prospects are probably in cycling, especially men's and women's mountain biking, and on the track," Werner Augsburger, Swiss Chef de Mission for the 2008 Beijing Games, told China Daily on Monday.
"We're also trying to gather scientific information about the temperature, humidity and air pollution there," he said. "On the other hand, we are collecting information from athletes and coaches who have been in China over the last two years."
The Alpine nation of 7.5 million people that is famous for its trees, mountains, ski resorts and chocolate is gambling with fate in staking much of its success on its outdoor cyclists next year.
Now it has four male riders in the top 15 of the UCI-ranked cross country Olympic class, with 31-year-old Christoph Sauser leading the pack at fourth.
Sauser, a bronze medalist from the 2000 Sydney Games, ended runner-up at the previous two world championships, while his compatriots Ralph Naf and Florian Vogel clocked a 2-3 finish at this year's edition.
In contrast, Swiss women rate significantly lower than, for example, the Chinese, who have two cyclists ranked in the top five of the same Olympic class while Switzerland has no one inside the top 10.
"Our pool of cyclists is about the same as it was four years ago, but the total delegation we send to Beijing could be slightly smaller," said Ausburger. "In broader medal terms we should be consistent with Athens or Sydney, but we won't release any targets until June or July."
Switzerland sent 99 athletes to the last Games in Athens and reaped five medals, including two in cycling (men's Madison, women's road time trial) and one gold in men's epee fencing that saw it rank 46th overall. It also got one gold medal in Sydney.
Its cyclists have earned a respectable three mountain biking medals thanks to the latest efforts by Barbara Blatter (silver) and Sauser (bronze) in Sydney, four years after "cross country" joined the official Olympic roster in 1996.
"We're usually good at new disciplines like beach volleyball, triathlon, mountain biking and snowboarding," said Augsburger, himself a former volleyball star. "This capability usually lasts for eight or 12 or 16 years, then other nations creep up and overtake us.
"It seems like Switzerland has a tendency to help these fledgling disciplines grow up, but then we struggle."
Swiss cyclist Thomas Frischknecht is a case in point. In 1996, the same year that cross-country mountain biking joined the Olympics, the three-time runner-up finally won the world championship title, a feat that none of his countrymen have managed since, and seized silver at the Atlanta Games.
Switzerland's female athletes were just as keen when the triathlon became a fixture at the Sydney Games, with Brigitte McMahon and Magali Messmer stamping a 1-3 finish on its debut. Sven Riederer kept the men in contention with their first medal, a bronze, in Athens.
But it took the Swiss beach volleyballers longer to get in gear before they finally ground out a men's doubles bronze on their third attempt in Athens. A similar fate may befall its BMXers, apparent late bloomers, when the sport debuts in Beijing.
