He wants to free Swiss athletics from a dirty legacy

Twenty seconds can change a life. Timothé Mumenthaler had prepared for this fateful moment for a long time, first physically, then mentally. In the hours before the 2024 European Championship final in the 200m, he repeatedly watched a video of a cheetah chasing a gazelle. No, the sprinter didn't see himself as a predator, but as prey that didn't want to be caught.

The French-speaking Swiss started the final on the outside lane. This isn't an easy starting position, as all his opponents are lined up further back – by the time they appear in view at the end of the curve, it may already be too late to react. Mumenthaler charged forward, and on the home stretch, the Italian Filippo Tortu closed in, but then the gazelle's survival instinct kicked in. A dozen powerful strides to the finish line. After 20.28 seconds, Mumenthaler was European champion. A new life seemed to be beginning.

But no sooner had the cheers died down than the blues set in. "I wasn't myself anymore, I was just tired," says the 22-year-old. Media inquiries poured in, there were sponsorship appointments, and above all, new expectations. Barely two months later, the Olympic Games were upon us, and the announcer presented Mumenthaler as European champion in front of over 70,000 spectators at the Stade de France. He felt all eyes on him. And he failed. Today, he says: "The title had a negative impact on the rest of the season."

This doesn't seem to fit the image of the self-confident sprinter that Mumenthaler likes to portray. When he was in the U23 200m final in 2023, he struck Usain Bolt's archer pose before the start. In 2024 in Rome, he pulled out an imaginary cell phone in front of the TV camera and pretended to make a quick call. It was a business call to himself, he later said. Mumenthaler had challenged himself to do his job. And he did it impressively.

Such self-promotion is good for television. But it doesn't go over well everywhere. Mumenthaler has received criticism on social media, accused of arrogance. Especially since he occasionally gives his opponents the runaround before the start: "I'll leave you behind!" The sprinter admits to having a penchant for trash talk. Taunting, teasing, putting on a show? "That's part of who I am. It helps me give my all on the track." But he never wants to appear disrespectful.

Kevin Widmer, his coach, was once a sprinter and Olympic athlete himself. He says there have always been athletes who motivate themselves this way. "The goal should never be to destroy your opponents," he says. Mumenthaler is theatrical, but not mean. In his training group in Geneva, he says, there's a camaraderie atmosphere where it's perfectly normal to encourage one another a little.

The coach took over Mumenthaler as a teenager with obvious talent but numerous injury problems. "It often happens that exceptionally gifted athletes get injured because they have a lot of speed but too little technique," says Widmer. He changed the athlete's running style; today, his movements are more fluid, and his muscular problems are a thing of the past.

When Mumenthaler became European champion and lowered his personal best to 20.28 seconds, he was only 21 years old. He can sprint at the highest level for at least another ten years and hasn't yet reached his full potential. How good can he become? "I believe he'll break into the world elite in the 100 and 200 meters," says Widmer. What does that mean exactly? "He's capable of running the 100 meters under 10 seconds and the 200 meters under 20 seconds." Widmer pauses briefly and then says, "Excellent."

The coach is addressing a shadow hanging over Swiss athletics. The national records are held by Alex Wilson with times of 10.08 and 19.98 seconds, both run on a beautiful June day in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2019. The Basel native was convicted of doping in 2021, and his ban was recently extended to a total of 14 years due to evidence of repeated doping. However, this does not extend back to 2019, and the records remain.

"Alex left a dirty footprint," says Mumenthaler. This annoys him even more because he looked up to Wilson years ago. "I trained to be like him. Today, I find it disgusting that his times still serve as the benchmark." After the European Championship title, Mumenthaler sees himself as a role model. "And I believe the first honor I can bestow on athletics is to erase the dirty traces Alex left behind."

That's a clear statement. It's interesting that both athletes and coaches are talking about world-class times over 100 meters, even though the Geneva sprinter has so far only excelled in the half-lap of the track. This was also Widmer's domain in the 1990s, holding the national record with 20.41 seconds until Wilson stepped up his game. He therefore speaks from experience when he says the two short sprint distances cannot be considered in isolation: Anyone who wants to be fast over 100 meters must also train for the 200 meters. And vice versa.

There are prominent examples of this: Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter the world has ever seen, also competed in the half-lap track, as did Noah Lyles, the 2024 Olympic 100m champion. Interestingly, Widmer says that Mumenthaler, with his tremendous speed, was a natural 100m runner. However, because his prospects for the 2023 and 2024 championships were better over the half-lap track, he pushed this. He has recently worked hard on his speed, and this summer he will be running both distances for the first time with great ambitions.

He's been even more focused on these ambitions since winning the 2024 European Championship. The gold medal gave him the confidence to make sport his top priority. Mumenthaler is studying microengineering at EPFL in Lausanne. After winning the title, he postponed his exams at short notice, which he is now currently catching up on. But if he wants to break into the world of sprinting, that will likely become difficult to reconcile with an elite education program at some point.