“You have embarrassed yourselves and your country” – Swiss fencers cause a stir at the U-23 European Championships in Estonia

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"Shame on the Swiss team for their disrespectful behavior," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote angrily on X. He further reprimanded the young fencers of the Swiss team: "You don't know how to lose and behaved in a way that disgraces yourselves and your country."

At the U23 European Championships in Estonia, the Swiss fencers lost to Israel 34:45 in the final. As the Israeli national anthem played at the awards ceremony, the first-place Israelis and the third-place Italians respectfully turned toward the flags on the podium. The four Swiss fencers, Ian Hauri, Théo Brochard, Jonathan Fuhrimann, and Sven Vineis, remained standing and pointedly avoided turning their faces toward the Israeli flag.

Some live commentators criticized the unsportsmanlike behavior of the runners-up. On social media, however, the Swiss lack of movement was quickly interpreted as a political message, a statement on the Middle East conflict.

Israeli coach Alexander Ivanov shared this view. He told the news portal Ynet that he deeply regretted that the Swiss had allowed a "moment of sporting triumph to become a platform for political hostilities."

In a press release on Sunday morning, the Swiss Fencing Federation congratulated the Israeli athletes on their gold medal and distanced itself from the behavior of its U-23 team. "Swiss Fencing has no understanding for the fact that its team misused the award ceremony for a political demonstration," the federation wrote.

The view is that "sporting competitions are not suitable for expressing political opinions, even though athletes are of course allowed to have their personal opinions on world events."

As soon as the team returns from Estonia, a decision will be made on any necessary measures. The association added that the Swiss athletes had "congratulated the Israeli team in a sporting spirit" after the final.