Hockey

The face of hockey in Switzerland belongs to Winnipeg-born Ralph Krueger, who played junior hockey in Calgary for the long-defunct Wranglers. The Swiss national men's coach is an anomaly in the world of European hockey, having been at the helm for an unprecedented 11 years and counting.

He is currently coaching the home team at the 2009 men's world championship in Switzerland, and is under contract through the 2010 Vancouver Games until the end of next year.

By using a defence-first style out of necessity, Switzerland under Krueger has been gradually edging closer to the Super Seven (Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, the United States, the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

Switzerland has few natural-born snipers, but a number of its goaltenders have made an impact in the NHL - from David Aebischer and Martin Gerber to the latest playoff sensation, Jonas Hiller of the Anaheim Ducks. New York Islanders defenceman Mark Streit may be its best-known position player - an excellent power-play quarterback, who has also played forward during his NHL career.

As a country, Switzerland is growing a deeper pool of talent than ever before. This past year, one of its club teams, Zurich SC Lions, defeated Russia's powerful Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the first Champions League playoff, a major upset. Officially, the Swiss are ranked seventh in the International Ice Hockey Federation's world rankings, just ahead of Slovakia.

Switzerland's ability to frustrate the traditional hockey powers was never more evident than at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. The Swiss upset Canada 2-0 in the preliminaries, also defeating the Czechs 3-2 to finish second in the round-robin standings. Ultimately, Switzerland lost a quarter-final game to the eventual champion, Sweden.

Paul DiPietro, who scored both goals for Switzerland in that monumental upset of Canada, continues to plug along. At 38, the Canadian-born former NHLer scored 33 points in 50 games for Zug of the Swiss A League this past season.

For the 2010 Olympics, Switzerland is grouped in the same preliminary men's bracket as Canada, Norway and the United States.