Which is why Joel Wicki is a worthy wrestler king

He tips over like a dead bug. Joel Wicki is the king of wrestling and after the triumph he lies on his back for a short time. “My body was dead,” he says of the hard fight against Matthias Aeschbacher in the final. Then he corrects himself immediately: “My body was empty.” A small correction that says so much about Wicki: he may fight explosively and aggressively, but at the same time he is a sensitive guy; someone whose thoughts are not constantly revolving around himself.

Including everyone and not duping anyone is important to the 25-year-old from Sörenberg in Entlebuch. And that’s why he directs a lot of words to others in the first interviews after the win, thanks to the central Swiss team, the fans, his sporting and private environment. And congratulates all participants of the Federal Wrestling Festival in Pratteln on their performance, because: “Everyone knows that sometimes it is not a matter of course.”

That’s true for Wicki in many respects. On the one hand, he suffered some injuries himself, for example in 2016 when he was one of the favorites at the federal in Estavayer and had to give up two weeks before the high point. On the other hand, in his sporting environment, he regularly sees how fragile a body is and how quickly big dreams can burst. In early summer he experienced a frightening moment at work, cut his hand with a cutting disc and was very lucky. And last but not least, he takes a memento with him to every wrestling festival: for example a souvenir of former club colleague Benno Studer, who was killed in a shooting spree nine years ago.

Soon he will take over a farm – but there will be less time for farm work

Sport is important to Wicki, but health comes first. Even after winning the king’s title, he says that one goal was to get through the two days without an accident – ​​after all, he wanted to go back to work on the farm as soon as he got home. Wicki is a trained construction machinery mechanic, but is currently doing his second training as a farmer; he will take over a farm with his girlfriend in the near future and is already helping out on the farm.

He probably won’t have much time for farm work in the next few weeks, experience has shown that a wave of inquiries about a king of wrestling breaks out. Many wrestling kings have said that after winning the title, they saved themselves with the last of their energy for the Christmas holidays because there was a lot of hustle and bustle before that.

Fortunately, Wicki has a manager who takes care of everything and can shield the athlete a little. Wicki’s mother used to do this work, but eventually the hype was too much. And not just since the federal in Zug in 2019, when Wicki lost to Christian Stucki in the final, but was crowned first because of the number of points he had achieved.

Even that performance brought Wicki a lot of recognition, but many believed that he had reached the zenith. Because Wicki is only 183 centimeters tall, which is rather small for a sawdust fighter. And at 110 kilograms, it’s not one of the heavyweights either. However, he is not impressed by the opinions of others – the motto on his website is: You only find out whether something works if you try it.

Wicki tried everything, gave everything. Prior to the Federal, he trained with vehemence and care, paid enough attention to recovery, he gets mental balance from hunting or fishing. And he paid attention to details, for example getting up at 5:45 a.m. a few days before the big event to get his body used to the conditions of the competition weekend.

Others can sometimes rely on their physical superiority or are particularly technically gifted. “I always have to go to the limit in training,” says Wicki. Maybe that’s exactly what will bring the decision in the final duel, in which he almost lies on his back a few times and mobilizes the last reserves of strength after 12 minutes and wins. “The head just didn’t want to let me lose here,” says the new wrestling king. Such mental strength at the age of 25 – that too is not to be taken for granted.

Wicki’s motivation seems inexhaustible, he is driven by the joy of his sport – but he has never been too shy about big ambitions. “You have to have a goal in mind, otherwise at some point you won’t like going to training anymore,” he once said. He dreamed big from an early age, and rightly so: when he was six, he tried his hand at a competition for young wrestlers and won a branch right away. And it is said that because of his strong upper arms he had trouble putting on shirts even as a child. Logically enough, his logo consists of a flexed arm with a massive bicep.

Wicki is both king and first crowned

From an early age he wanted to work with weights in strength training, but the trainer advised against it. Wicki didn’t think it was great, “as a youngster you always want to go full throttle”. But the patience paid off, and success came like this: At 15, Wicki was best in his year at the Federal Youth Wrestling Day, at 17 he defeated wrestling king Arnold Forrer, as an 18-year-old he won the Bergkranzfest at Schwarzsee, with 20 he was runner-up at Unspunnenfest.

And now he is one of only three wrestlers who are both king and first crowned. And only the second Swiss wrestling king. Does that make him stand out?

Hardly. Wicki has actually been aloof for a long time – but in a good way. He is a typical mountain man and seems to see things from a higher perspective. During a visit to his homeland three years ago, he pointed to the mountain slopes all around, where he likes to go hunting or helps his relatives on the alp far, far up. It was incredibly steep, he said at the time, not accessible with machines; No one can do such a tough job alone. “It has shaped my life that people support each other in the family.”

In other respects too, Wicki seems surprisingly level-headed and mature for his age. He doesn’t allow himself to be overwhelmed by the gossip that is common in the wrestling scene: “I say from time to time: ‘Let him be, you don’t even know what he’s like.'” A quote from a conversation three years ago , even then Wicki was very reflective. At that time he also spoke about advertising revenue and took a completely different perspective: He thinks it’s a good thing because ten percent of the income goes to the association and the young people benefit from it.

An overarching perspective, with a focus on the positive and thoughts of others – these are exactly the qualities that make Joel Wicki stand out.