Ernst Fivian

Ernst Fivian took up gymnastics at the age of 13 and joined the Swiss national team six years later, in 1950. He represented his country at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where he took home a silver medal with the team and had a best finish of joint-seventh (alongside Soviet Iosif Berdiyev) in the horse vault. After a period out of the limelight, he returned to a great triumph at the 1959 European Championships, winning the floor exercise and coming in third in the horse vault. He appeared in his second Olympics in 1960, finishing eight with the team and having a best placement of joint-7th in the floor exercise. The next year, he again took bronze in the horse vault at the Europeans, before being forced to retire due to Achilles’ tendon injuries.