16/12/2020 12:00
#EuroBeachVolley gold medal winners are Switzerland’s ‘Team of the Year’
News from the National Federations
Bern, Switzerland, December 16, 2020. EuroBeachVolley gold medallists Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré have emerged as Switzerland’s ‘Team of the Year 2020’ following the poll organised by the Blick newspaper.
The traditional “Sports Awards” ceremony run by Swiss national broadcaster SRG could not take place this year because of the coronavirus crisis. However, the Blick newspaper decided to award the top athletes of a 2020 season heavily disrupted by the global health crisis, with almost 200,000 fans casting their votes online and combined with those provided by a jury of experts, each counting for 50% to determine the final standing.
The Swiss Beach Volleyball duo Joana Heidrich/Anouk Vergé-Dépré claimed first place in the ‘Team of the Year’ category, edging the tough competition brought by the alpine skiing national team and the Berner Young Boys, the reigning Swiss soccer national champions.
Despite the pandemic, Heidrich and Vergé-Dépré can look back on a successful year, which they crowned by winning the European Championship – thus becoming only the second Swiss women’s team to achieve this feat after Nicole Schnyder-Benoit and Simone Kuhn had claimed the continental crown in 2004.
The two Swiss women are obviously happy about the award: “Joana and I did not expect that we would win this award. Therefore, we are all the happier that it worked. This is also a great success for the sport of Beach Volleyball in Switzerland,” says Vergé-Dépré.
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