Ivo Rüegg (born 15 April 1971) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobs ...

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 FIBT World Championships 1930, 1930. Starting with 2002, no Wo ...

with two golds (Two-man:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, Four-man:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

), two silvers Two-man: 2007, Mixed team: 2009), and a bronze (Mixed team: 2007). Rüegg grew up in

Tuggen Tuggen is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in March District in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. History According to Walafrid Strabo the Irish missionaries Columbanus, Columban and Saint Gall, Gall arrived at Tuggen around the y ...

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 th ...

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 t ...

, 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 (translated to 'stone throwing' in English) is the Swiss variant of stone put, of throwing a heavy stone overhead using both arms for the longest distance. Practiced among the alpine population since prehistoric times, it is recorded ...

(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 Schwyz (; ; ) is a town and 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 ''Bundesbriefmuseum''. The of ...

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 are the main bobsleigh and skeleton championships in Europe. The first bobsleigh European Championships with two-man event was held in 1929 in Davos, Switzerland. However, as Bobsleigh World Champi ...

, 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 Torinese. The venue holds approximately 7,130 spectators, of whom 3,624 are se ...

) 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 (), also known as the Winter Olympics, 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 held i ...

, 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 List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. 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 language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene lan ...

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 Ral ...

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 Events January * January 1 ...

, the cousin of

Ralph Rüegg Ralph Rüegg (born 23 May 1973) is a Switzerland, Swiss bobsledder who competed from 1998 to 2006. He is best known for his third-place finish in the four-man event of the List of Bobsleigh World Cup champions, Bobsleigh World Cup championship in 2 ...

, and the brother of Reto Rüegg, all of whom were also bobsledders.

References

* * * *
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 sportsmen {{Switzerland-bobsleigh-bio-stub