Schweizer Hämmerle made it clear: Gold for Austria – Vorarlberg –
In the media struggle for Alessandro Hämmerle’s gold medal, the snowboard crosser took a stand on Saturday.
“I did all my snowboarding training in Austria, I grew up in our ski area,” Hämmerle, who was born in the canton of Thurgau as the son of a Swiss mother, but came to Vorarlberg at the age of eight.
“Ösi-Gold-Boarder is Swiss”
After Hämmerle’s Olympic victory, the Swiss tabloid “Blick” headlined: “Ösi-Gold-Boarder is actually a Swiss person” and: “They owe one of their Olympic champions to Switzerland”. Hämmerle joked in the direction of his native country: “If the Swiss want the medal for themselves, they should have taught me something other than the dialect.”
Hämmerle’s mother was quoted by the “Kronenzeitung” as saying: “If we hadn’t moved then, he would never have become a snowboarder.” With seven medals (2 gold), the Swiss had won half as many medals as Austria on Saturday afternoon.