The long version
How I got here.
I’m a Swiss master’s student at ETH Zürich. I grew up in the southern Alps, where my father took me hiking in summer and skiing in winter.
I wasn’t always grateful for the long walks, especially because he had a talent for getting lost. But he avoided tourist routes, so I learned early to feel at home on less-travelled paths. As a kid, I didn’t really understand what hiking was. It was simply the family activity I had to endure most weekends.
As a teenager, I joined my high-school orienteering club to get closer to a girl. It worked out differently than planned: I discovered a sport, and I discovered that it’s possible to move fast through terrain that seems completely unfriendly.
During military service, I tore my anterior cruciate ligament in an exercise. Being unable to walk properly for six weeks was a turning point. It made me realise how extraordinary it is simply to have working legs, and how many opportunities we have to explore the world.
After rehab, I started to appreciate endurance sport and the mountains in a different way. I ran occasionally and went on small excursions, treating each one as a friendly challenge. I loved the feeling of arriving at the top and realising again what the human body can do.
At university, I prioritised social life over sport. (I had some gaps to make up.) In 2024, I ran my first race: a half marathon around Greifensee, a lake near Zürich. I had no training plan and barely knew what training meant. My goal was simply to break two hours. Somehow, I ran 1:33, a complete surprise, since I had never held that pace for more than a kilometre.
My ego was ready for a marathon six months later. Zürich, April 2025. My discipline was not. I ran only three times in six months, and at kilometre 30 my body, or perhaps my brain, said no. I hit the wall so hard, physically and mentally, that it took me months to feel fully recovered. Did I really recover? I’m still finding out.
September 2025 was another turning point. Life events made me question a lot of things, and slowly the idea of trying a triathlon started to grow. I let it cook, built the motivation and prepared my mindset. In July 2026, I started training for what is probably my biggest project so far: IRONMAN Calella 2027.