A relative newcomer to major senior international competition, 23-year-old Noe Seifert was selected for Worlds in Kitakyushu this year and just a few weeks later, made his debut at the Swiss Cup alongside Lena Bickel. Competing as Team Switzerland 2, the duo just missed out on the podium with a fourth place finish and delighted the crowd with their routines, with Noe trying a daredevil triple back dismount off the high bar. We caught up briefly with Noe after the competition and asked him how he dealt with the pressure of competing in front of a huge home crowd.
“For me, the pressure wasn’t that big because we were here for the first time and we’re the young ones. I really enjoyed the competition and the pressure for me wasn’t that high, so I could really enjoy it.”
Pablo Braegger and Oliver Hegi were the faces of Swiss men’s gymnastics for much of the past decade. Was Noe inspired by them?
“Yeah, and also by all the gymnasts at the Swiss Cup; it was a really nice competition to watch when I was young. I went to the Swiss Cup about five times and it was really cool.”
The Swiss Cup requires a lot of strategy, with gymnasts needing to decide which apparatus to pick in each round based on potential scores and risk. How did Noe design his strategy?
“My strategy was to have parallel bars at the beginning because it’s a really safe routine and can score well, and then it was pommel second, a bit sketchy, but it went really good, and then high bar, yes…sad I fell on the dismount on my back, but hopefully next time I’ll get it!”
The European Gymnastics Blog 