GYMNASTS from Switzerland

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swiss Gymnasts of all time. This list of famous Swiss Gymnasts is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Louis Zutter (1865 - 1946)

With an HPI of 54.39, Louis Zutter is the most famous Swiss Gymnast.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.

Jules Alexis "Louis" Zutter (2 December 1865 – 10 November 1946) was a Swiss gymnast. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.Zutter won one of the events, the pommel horse. He was also the runner-up in two more events, the vault and the parallel bars. In addition, he competed in the horizontal bar event, but without success. He was born in Les Ponts-de-Martel and lived in Peseux, where he was a member of the gymnastics club La Société des Amis gymnastes de Neuchâtel. In 1893 his father was hired as a trainer in Panachaikos Gymnastikos Syllogos and Louis became a member of the club. After his success in the 1896 Olympics, he was honoured in Patras with the Greek athletes by the city. The Zutter family left Greece due to the Greco-Turkish War (1897).

2. Georges Miez (1904 - 1999)

With an HPI of 46.57, Georges Miez is the 2nd most famous Swiss Gymnast.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Georges Miez (2 October 1904 – 21 April 1999) was a Swiss gymnast. He competed at the 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics, winning a total of four gold, three silver and one bronze medals. Miez was the most successful athlete of the 1928 Games, whereas in 1932 he was the only medalist for Switzerland. Miez also won three medals at the 1934 World Championships.Between the 1924 and 1928 Olympics Miez served in the Swiss army, coached gymnastics in the Netherlands, and worked for a Swiss sportswear company, where he designed a new type of gymnastics trousers. After that he coached gymnastics in Chiasso. Switzerland did not send an Olympic team in 1932 due to the economic depression, but Miez volunteered to compete on his own, and also return the body of his brother who died in the United States. After winning a silver on the floor, Miez withdrew from the Games and toured the United States giving presentations at universities.Miez retired after the 1936 Games and worked as a national gymnastics coach and then as a Red Cross official. After World War II he founded several private schools, wrote books on sports medicine, and coached tennis. He spent most of his late years in Lugano, where he died of a stroke aged 94.

3. Adolf Spinnler (1879 - 1951)

With an HPI of 46.02, Adolf Spinnler is the 3rd most famous Swiss Gymnast.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Adolf Spinnler (July 18, 1879 – November 20, 1951) was a Swiss gymnast who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

4. Giulia Steingruber (b. 1994)

With an HPI of 26.86, Giulia Steingruber is the 4th most famous Swiss Gymnast.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Giulia Steingruber (born 24 March 1994) is a Swiss retired artistic gymnast. She is the 2016 Olympic and 2017 World bronze medalist on vault. Additionally, she is the 2015 European all-around champion, a four-time European vault champion (2013, 2014, 2016, and 2021) and the 2016 European floor exercise champion. Steingruber competed for Switzerland at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. She is the first Swiss female gymnast to win the European all-around title and the first Swiss female gymnast ever to win an Olympic gymnastics medal of any color.