Gérald Métroz

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

The "miracle of Sembrancher "

Métroz fell for the first time in the headlines when he playing near the railway station of Sembrancher slipped on December 16, 1964 a moving train, which nearly separated out both his legs at the hip. He survived this accident probably only because the wheels of the train has been disconnected from its arteries, which saved him from bleeding to death. As in the whole of Switzerland was not at that time a prosthetic fitting for such a case possible Métroz in 1966 for a few months to Münster ( Westfalen) brought, where at that time also many thalidomide victims were treated. He learned there - with basswood prostheses without knee - to go again, but saw it as a trauma to have been abandoned by his parents, and got used to it difficult to get the French-speaking Switzerland one, especially as he had forgotten his native language after the stay in Germany.

The athletic career

With nine years of sports-loving boy began skating; two years later he was inducted into the newly formed ice hockey team of the place. Sixteen -year old he had to realize that his handicap would not allow him an athletic career in this field, and gave the hockey game on, however, final.

Soon after, he began with the wheelchair basketball. Here he achieved promotion to the Swiss national team. He scored among other things, three titles as top scorer in the Swiss Championships; the victory in the final of the Swiss Cup in 1980 was about half of the points on Métroz ' account.

After graduation examination Métroz began to study in Geneva History, English and sociology, but soon realized that he was physically unable to cope with the stressful everyday life at the university. In 1984, he instead began with an internship at the newspaper Nouvel list in Martigny.

In 1987 he moved to Canada for two years, where, thanks to Viviane and Michel Drolet he got access to many hockey games and his first book Au cœur du hockey wrote. In Canada, he was also able to bring itself to the decision henceforth to renounce the prostheses, with whom he had always moved only laboriously and painfully.

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

Other activities

In addition to his sports career he worked for a time as a journalist in the news studios of Radio Suisse Romande and founded his company GMSC ( Gérald Métroz Sports Consulting ), establishes the professional hockey players and cared for and now operates internationally. One such company at that time was a novelty; Métroz now has some competition from several other players' agents, such as Bjarne Madsen.

1992 Métroz learned at the Paralympics in Barcelona Bernard Goldblatt, with whom he worked in the project Cabo - Ciné. The task of this project has made ​​, to make it through film screenings etc. in Third World countries on the situation of disabled people attentive to convey aids and to provide AIDS prevention.

In 1997, Métroz active participation in sporting events on. His latest passion was time to play the guitar, which he learned at Guy Kummer- Nicolussi. Even now he wrote his book Soudain un train. The title of the German edition is I do not let it hinder me. In the winter of 2000/2001 he also posed as a model for the campaign "We can not hinder us," Pro Infirmis.

Works

• A cœur du hockey
• I do not let it hinder me, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-426-77675-8