Ditaji Kambundji and Simon Ehammer were crowned Swiss Athletes of the Year at the Swiss Athletics Night in Berne on Saturday (8) evening.
Kambundji, who won this accolade for the second time, amassed a superlative season in the major events. She won the 60m hurdles title at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn in a European record of 7.67 - just 0.02 outside the world record - before winning silver at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
The 23-year-old went on to transfer this form outdoors by storming to gold in the 100m hurdles title at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - Switzerland’s first gold medal since Andre Bucher won the 800m in 2001 - in 12.24 to move to second on the European all-time list behind Yordanka Donkova’s former world record of 12.21.
Her coach Florian Clivaz was named Coach of the Year having coached two athletes to world titles in 2025. As well as Ditaji winning 100m hurdles gold in Tokyo, Clivaz also guided Mujinga Kambundji to her second 60m title at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
Simon Ehammer was crowned men’s Swiss Athlete of the Year for the fourth time at the age of 25. He won heptathlon silver behind Norway’s Sander Skotheim at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, breaking the previous European record in the process with 6506 points.
Outdoors, Ehammer won the Diamond League title in the long jump on home soil in Zurich before finishing fourth in the same event at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. He also improved his decathlon lifetime best to 8575 points.
European U20 100m hurdles champion Jil Sanchez was crowned Young Swiss Athlete of the Year.
Photo courtesy of Atletix.ch