Matthias Kyburz (born 5 March 1990) is a Swiss competitor in orienteering and athletics. In orienteering, Kyburz has attained gold medals in the

Junior World Orienteering Championships The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) are an annual orienteering competition. They were first held in 1990. Entry is open to national teams aged 20 and below as of 31 December in the year of competition. Representative countries mu ...

European Orienteering Championships The European Orienteering Championships were first held in 1962. They have been held biennially since 2000. From 2020, the European Orienteering Championships will be held annually, with sprint events and forest events in alternate years. Format ...

and the

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (often abbreviated as WOC) is an international orienteering competition which has been organized by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) since 1966. The World Orienteering Championships is considere ...

. In athletics, Kyburz is a long-distance specialist; Kyburz attained the world record in 50 km on a treadmill of 2:56:35 on 16 April 2020, breaking a record held by Florian Neuschwander. On 7 April 2024 Kyburz ran 2:07:44 in his Marathon debut, becoming the third fastest Swiss athlete of all time over the distance after Tadesse Abraham and his coach

Viktor Röthlin Viktor Röthlin (born October 14, 1974 in Kerns, Obwalden) is a Swiss former long-distance runner, who specialized in the marathon. Röthlin won the silver medal at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, the bronze medal at the ...

, and achieving the qualifying standard for the

2024 Olympic Games The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. In the Olympic

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

, Kyburz finished in 30th place.

Career

Orienteering

Kyburz won a bronze medal in the Long Distance at the 2008 Junior World Orienteering Championships in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

before achieving his only gold medal in the Sprint distance in 2009, and a bronze medal in his last year of eligibility in 2010. Following this, Kyburz took two years to win his first gold medal in the World Championships, winning the sprint distance at the 2012

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, ahead of

Matthias Merz Matthias Merz (born 1 February 1984) is a Swiss orienteering competitor, winner of the 2007 World Orienteering Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, Long distance, and also earned a silver medal on the Sprint distance in the same championship. He has ...

and Matthias Müller. Following his 2012 success in the Sprint, Kyburz became an important competitor on the world stage, an all round orienteer with the ability to win any of the three individual orienteering disciplines. This has allowed him to win the

Orienteering World Cup The Orienteering World Cup is a series of orienteering competitions organized annually by the International Orienteering Federation. Two unofficial cups were organized in 1983 and 1984. The official World Cup was held first in 1986, and then every ...

on six occasions: 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2023. For eleven years in a row (2008 to 2018) one of the two Swiss orienteers Matthias Kyburz or

Daniel Hubmann Daniel Hubmann (born 16 April 1983 in Eschlikon, Thurgau) is a Swiss orienteering competitor. Hubmann is the most successful male Swiss orienteer of all time, with 9 Gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships. In 2023, with his victory ...

won the

. Kyburz has won eight

gold medals in five different disciplines: Sprint (2012, Lausanne), Sprint Relay (2014, Trentino), Knock Out Sprint (2022, Vejle), Relay (2015, Inverness and 2023, Flims-Laax) and Middle (2016, Strömstad, 2021, Doksy and 2023, Flims-Laax). Kyburz has also won

gold medals in five different disciplines: Relay (2012), Sprint Relay (2021), Sprint (2016, 2018 and 2023), Knock Out Sprint (2021 and 2023), and Middle (2016 and 2018). Kyburz has won eight

World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

medals of which three were gold in Cali 2013, one of each color at The World Games 2017, and a gold and a silver in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. 2023 was the best season for Kyburz, where he won the 2023 Orienteering World Cup, two gold medals and one silver medal at the

2023 World Orienteering Championships The 2023 World Orienteering Championships were held from 11 to 16 July 2023 in Flims/Laax in the Canton of the Grisons (), Switzerland. The championships consisted of six forest competitions: middle distance, long distance and relay, for women a ...

, and two gold medals and one silver medal at the

. Following the introduction of the Knock-out sprint format in the 2021 orienteering season, Kyburz won every international event in the format until 2023, including in the 2021 European Orienteering Championships, the 2022 Orienteering World Cup and 2022 World Orienteering Championships, and the 2023 European Orienteering Championships.

Athletics

Kyburz attained the world record in 50 km on a treadmill of 2:56:35 on 16 April 2020, breaking a record held by Florian Neuschwander. On 26 July 2020, Kyburz broke the course record in the K43-M category at the Swiss Alpine Marathon by 10 minutes, over 42.7 kilometers and 1324 meters of climb. Kyburz also won the Bern Grand Prix over 10 miles in 2022. In around 2014, a sports doctor reportedly told Kyburz following a performance test that his test results were optimal for marathon running. The same doctor also had former World Championship bronze medallist

on his list of patients, and apparently told Röthlin that there was an orienteering competitor that had better results than either Röthlin or Tadesse Abraham. Following a successful 2023 orienteering season, Kyburz called Röthlin and asked Röthlin to coach him for the 2024 Paris Marathon in an attempt to beat the Olympic qualifying time. In 2024, during his preparation for the Paris Marathon, Kyburz won the Swiss Championships in the Half Marathon in a time of 1:02:25, breaking his personal best by six minutes. On 7 April 2024 Kyburz finished 7th in the

Paris Marathon The Paris Marathon () is an annual marathon (sport), marathon hosted by the city of Paris, France. It is the largest running event in France in terms of finishers and is typically among the five largest marathons in the world. The marathon begi ...

in a time of 2:07:44, within the qualification standard of 2:08:10 for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. On 9 June 2024, Kyburz came 21st at the

2024 European Athletics Championships The 26th European Athletics Championships were held from 7 to 12 June 2024 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy. It was the third time Italy staged this sporting event after the inaugural 1934 European Athletics Championships, 1934 edition in T ...

in the half marathon in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in a time of 1:03:07. In the Olympic

, Kyburz finished in 30th place.

Results

World Championship results

World Cup victories

* (p) = pursuit

Personal life

His brother, Andreas Kyburz, is also an international orienteering competitor. Kyburz has a child with fellow orienteer Sarina born in January 2024.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kyburz, Matthias 1990 births Living people Swiss male orienteers Swiss foot orienteers World Orienteering Championships medalists World Games gold medalists for Switzerland World Games silver medalists for Switzerland World Games bronze medalists for Switzerland World Games medalists in orienteering 21st-century Swiss sportsmen Junior World Orienteering Championships medalists Medalists at the 2013 World Games Medalists at the 2017 World Games Medalists at the 2022 World Games Military World Games gold medalists Military World Games medalists for Switzerland Military World Games medalists in orienteering Military World Games bronze medalists for Switzerland Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Switzerland Swiss male marathon runners