Schwendinger also there: five athletes go to Tokyo – Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein has the largest delegation to the Summer Olympics for 38 years and for the first time in local sports history a team is taking part in summer sports. Julia Hassler and Christoph Meier in swimming, the Artistic Swimming Duet Lara Mechnig and Marluce Schierscher as well as the judoka Raphael Schwendinger will represent Liechtenstein’s colors from July 23rd to August 8th in Japan. Christoph Meier and Julia Hassler were able to take part in the Olympic Games in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, everyone else is breaking new ground.

Qualifying for the Olympic Games is always extremely difficult and requires years of hard training and competitive performance at an international top level. To make things even more difficult at Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Games were postponed for the first time in history due to the global corona pandemic. Julia Hassler and Christoph Meier were able to swim the athletic selection criteria in 2019, the other athletes had to tremble for longer. Lara Mechnig and Marluce Schierscher secured their Olympic ticket just over two weeks ago at the qualifying competition in Barcelona. Judoka Raphael Schwendinger had to wait a little longer. Shortly before the end of the selection phase, he was awarded an invitation place by the IOC and the international judo association.

The athletes’ sporting expectations and goals are different. While most of them are about improving their own personal best, Julia Hassler is toying with a final qualification, which is equivalent to winning an Olympic diploma. The athletes will soon be traveling to Japan to get the finishing touches on site.