Fuji City (2021 Host Town)

Chubu | Fuji City

2021 Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics

Many Swiss people dream of seeing Mount Fuji at least once, let alone every morning. Swiss swimmers, on the other hand, will have this privilege for two years!

The Mountain - The City

Is there another place in Japan with a more iconic landscape? Narrowly snuggled between the Pacific Ocean and the country’s most famous icon, Fuji City is known as Shizuoka Prefecture’s main industrial city (with an historic specialization in papermaking) and as the starting point for the Fujinomiya Route during the climbing season.

For Swiss people, however, Fuji is soon to carry another memorable distinction: hosting their elite swimming athletes from 2019 to 2021 – and perhaps beyond!

Partnering with Swiss champions

In early 2018, Fuji officials entered in contact with the Swiss Swimming Federation to discuss an exciting project: hosting the pre-Games training camp of Swiss Olympic swimmers at the Shizuoka Prefectural Fuji Swimming Pools. Seeking to increase their hometown’s multiculturalism, international cooperation, and access to sports for persons with disabilities, Fuji officials knew that Switzerland’s expertise in those fields would be an ideal match.

Although only one Swiss Olympic swimmer has ever climbed on the podium (1984, bronze), Paralympic athletes such as Daniel Künzi or Régis Mettraux have won a staggering total of 25 medals since the Games were first held in Rome in 1960. As shown by Switzerland’s excellent performances in European and World Swimming Championships, the Swiss Swimming Federation’s deep technical expertise in the discipline is bearing its fruits.

Training in Japan

An agreement granting the Swiss team access to the cities’ internationally approved facilities, which include a 50mx25m indoor pool, a diving well, and all the necessary springboards and platforms, was reached within a few months. From late June 2019, around 50 Swiss athletes of all swimming disciplines will move to Fuji to prepare their performance for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, but also for the 2019 and 2021 FINA World Aquatics Championships, which will take place respectively in South Korea and Fukuoka. Their experience is also set to be cultural, as they will get the chance to experience Japanese hospitality at the foot of Japan’s most sacred and revered mountain.

Yet Fuji City and Switzerland’s cooperation will not stop there. As the agreement was officially approved by the Headquarters for the Promotion of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, local officials also decided to strike while the iron was hot in August 2018 by applying as one of Switzerland’s Host Towns on the road to 2021!

Switzerland is coming to town

The Host Town Initiative was designed by the Japanese government in 2016 to promote educational and sports exchanges between the population living outside Tokyo, foreign countries and visiting Olympic teams before and during the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. In other words, pre-game training camps, showcases, lectures, workshops and festivals will be held all over Fuji City, providing Swiss athletes and Japanese locals with unique opportunities to meet, exchange and create new ties that will outlast 2021.

The same events will simultaneously take place in four other Japanese places: Oyamazaki Town (Kyoto Prefecture), Fukushima City, Oita City, and Tsukuba City. Thanks to these special partnerships, the Swiss-Japanese friendship is set to enter the post-2021 period with a renewed vitality and creative power!