What comes to mind when you hear the word “Switzerland”? Most likely, Swiss watches—just as reliable as their banks. Maybe the Alps and green meadows. Perhaps cheese. Some might say Switzerland is a country of wealthy people, or a nation that takes great care to maintain its neutrality.

But for me, Switzerland is, first and foremost, a country of athletes. Not professional ones. Here, mass sports are king.

Almost everyone engages in sports, at all ages, everywhere, from childhood to old age. This active lifestyle likely explains why the Swiss have the highest life expectancy in Europe, second only to Japan globally (The current life expectancy for Switzerland in 2025 is 84.49 years, a 0.14% increase from 2024—source linked in comments). The phrase “he/she gained weight with age” is not about them at all. And, in my opinion, a love for sports shapes the character and mentality of the Swiss.

To illustrate just how popular sports are here, let me give you a personal example. My son and I play badminton—each at our own level, of course. Now, imagine this: every single weekend, badminton tournaments take place across Switzerland. According to the national association, there can be no more than six tournaments in a single day (read: at a weekend). Each event gathers an average of 150–300 players. Athletes arrive early in the morning and spend the whole day in the sports hall—cheering for teammates, chatting, grabbing snacks, watching other competitions, etc, etc.

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And the drinking culture? Minimal. Because the weekend priority is performing at your best. At these tournaments, local stars play alongside amateurs like me, just in different categories. My son, for example, already plays in category 1 or 2, while I mostly lose in the fourth. There are separate competitions for teenagers and seniors, as well as elite-level tournaments.

Besides these events, there are also national leagues—club championships with six different levels. The top level is so competitive that Switzerland recruits players ranked 30–70 in the world.

Obviously, to compete, you need to train. So, let’s add a minimum of 3-4 hours of training time per week.

For a population of Fribourg canton—about 340 thousand people—there are 21 clubs where you can regularly train and play badminton. And this is for a sport that is not even in the top ten most popular (neither, by the way, well-sponsored) in Switzerland.

On average, 1200 people participate in badminton tournaments across Switzerland each weekend.

My younger daughter played football for a year and practiced swimming for a few months; the system there is more or less similar.

In addition to physical education classes in schools, an annual “sports week” is held. Each student has two training sessions a day, morning and afternoon. Typically, children choose sports they are interested in beforehand.

By the bay, inclusivity is also a priority. For visually impaired athletes, local sports volunteers have found a solution: tandem cycling on special two-person bikes. The cycling season runs from March to October, featuring rides that range from local tours to inter-cantonal exchanges with other teams.

I once read that sports, especially competitive ones, are needed to feed our so-called dark side in an ecological way. To shed aggression. To scream. To sweat, but to come first. To crush the opponent. To conquer their territory. To kill with an elegant smash (if the smash turns out not so much elegant as sharp, it is customary to apologize for it here, it’s incredibly cute—like, sorry, I killed you because you positioned yourself so poorly). And I have often watched the game of smiling, polite girls. How hard they sometimes smash these shots!

Incidentally, in both tennis and badminton, there’s a shot literally called a “kill shot”—das Töten, or Net Kill. Just think about it.

And just as importantly, sports teach you how to lose. To handle stress. To move forward, leaving a lost point or even a match behind. It’s hard to say which lesson is more valuable. Both, I guess.

… And then, after all that competition, these same people return to their daily lives—home, school, work—smiling, courteous, patient, and calm. They’re also friendly and peaceful, and they’ve already learned how to lose.

Oh, and one more thing—playing sports is the ultimate distraction from life’s problems. When you’re in the game, you exist only at the moment, as cliché as that sounds. If sports were as popular worldwide as they are in Switzerland, wars would have long ceased, I assure you. Thanks to this mentality, everyone would maintain that neutrality, which is so Swiss.

But here we again come to the question of what came first, the chicken or the egg. That is, the Swiss mentality is what it is because they engage in sports and move a lot, or vice versa, they move a lot because they have such mentality?

I honestly don’t know.

Do you? Comments are open. After the prompt moderation, they will appear below.