Gérald Métroz

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Gérald Métroz (born May 16, 1962 in Martigny ) is a Swiss author, ex-athlete and sports manager.

The "miracle of Sembrancher"

Métroz first hit the headlines on December 16, 1964, when he slipped under an approaching train while playing near the Sembrancher station, which severed both legs almost at hip height. He probably only survived the accident because the train's wheels blocked his arteries , which kept him from bleeding to death. Since prosthesis was not possible for such a case in all of Switzerland at the time , Métroz was brought to Münster for a few months in 1966 , where many thalidomide victims were also cared for at the time. There he learned to walk again - with limewood prostheses without a knee joint - but experienced it as a trauma to have been abandoned by his parents and then found it difficult to get used to French-speaking Switzerland again , especially since he forgot his mother tongue after his stay in Germany would have.

The sporting career

The sports-loving boy began ice skating at the age of nine ; two years later he was accepted into the newly formed ice hockey team in town. At the age of sixteen, however, he finally had to realize that his handicap would not allow him a sporting career in this field, and he gave up playing ice hockey.

Soon after, he started wheelchair basketball . Here he was promoted to the Swiss national team. Among other things, he achieved three titles as top scorer at the Swiss championships; when he won the final of the Swiss championships in 1980, Métroz accounted for over half of the points.

After graduating from high school, Métroz began to study history, English and sociology in Geneva , but soon found that he was physically unable to cope with the stressful everyday life at university. Instead, in 1984 he began a traineeship at the Nouvelliste newspaper in Martigny .

In 1987 he moved to Canada for two years , where thanks to Viviane and Michel Drolet he got access to numerous ice hockey games and wrote his first book Au cœur du hockey . In Canada, he was able to bring himself to the decision to do without the prostheses, with which he had always moved with difficulty and pain.

After his stay in Canada, Métroz turned to a new sport, wheelchair tennis . He was four times Swiss champion in singles and six times in doubles and also took part in the Paralympics in Atlanta , but without winning a medal. In doubles he reached the quarterfinals.

further activities

In addition to his sporting career, he worked for a while as a journalist in the news studios of Radio Suisse Romande and founded his company GMSC (Gérald Métroz Sports Consulting), which develops and supports professional ice hockey players and which is now internationally active. Such a company was a novelty at the time; Métroz now has competition from several other players' agents, e. B. Bjarne Madsen .

In 1992 Métroz met Bernard Goldblat at the Paralympics in Barcelona , with whom he then worked on the Cabo-Ciné project . This project has set itself the task of drawing attention to the situation of disabled people through film screenings etc. in third world countries , providing aids and preventing AIDS .

In 1997 Métroz gave up active participation in sports. His latest passion at the time was playing the guitar, which he learned from Guy Kummer-Nicolussi . His book Soudain un train was also created . The title of the German edition is I won't let myself be hindered . In winter 2000/2001 he also posed as a model for the Pro Infirmis campaign “We don't let ourselves be hindered” .

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personal data
SURNAME Métroz, Gérald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss author, ex-athlete and sports manager
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Martigny