Coming soon: On becoming Swiss
The back story from the archives
Watching the ice hockey worlds this week stirred my national identity crisis, as it does every year. I get excited about hockey in a jingoistic way that just doesn’t happen in any other sport; maybe it’s my inner Slav coming to the fore.
It was deeply, deeply satisfying to see the Czech Republic knock out the boys from the US last night. Czechia, as some are calling it these days, is the host country and it’s always nice when the host country does well at these big things. But hey, moji chlapci, I love it.
I was also glued to the television for the quarterfinal match between Switzerland and Germany, and my son will attest that I did some shouting. Hockey is big in Switzerland and national league matches tend to draw more spectators than football (soccer); the NHL is also full of Swiss players. But Swiss national teams often have confidence issues and sink noiselessly after the group phase of international tournaments. Not this year! After a superior 3-1 finish against the northern neighbor, Switzerland will be playing for the medals for the first time since 2018 when they took silver after losing to Sweden in the final and yes this is a run-on sentence but this is going to be a great weekend of shouting at the television for me.1
If my emotional fandom for the Czech Republic is based on blood, does rooting for Switzerland2 mean I have acquired (gulp) national pride since becoming a card-carrying Swiss Person?
The next few weeks will feature posts from the archive to re-live those early days of Swissness. Come along and learn wondrous things. Hopp Schwiiz.3
I do realize that Switzerland has to get past Canada if they’re to play for gold again, which is not that likely.
If Switzerland and the Czech Republic have to square off in the finals, which is quite possible, it will be rather emotional for me. And loud, since I will shout at and for both sides.
A rousing cheer, in Swiss German.