Markus Ryffel

Medal record
Men’s Athletics
Competitor for  Switzerland
Olympic Games
Silver	1984 Los Angeles	5000 m

Markus Ryffel (born 5 February 1955 in Bern) is a Swiss long-distance runner who won the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic 5000 metres final in Los Angeles. He set the Swiss record at 13:07.54 min (see, for example, "The Great Olympic Book 4" / Suuri Olympiateos 4, published in Finland in 1984). He also won a silver medal at the 1978 European Championships in Athletics, sharing it with the Soviet Union's Alexander Fedotkin; they both lost just one-tenth of a second to Italy's Venanzio Ortis (see, for example, "European Athletics Championships 1978" / Yleisurheilun EM-kisat 1978, written by the "Runner" / Juoksija magazine's journalists and published in Finland in 1978). Between these two major championships medals, Ryffel had a rather varying success as a 5,000-metre runner. In the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he placed fifth in that distance, losing to the winner, Ethiopia's Miruts Yifter, by 2.1 seconds (see, for example, "The Moscow Olympic Book" / Moskovan Olympiakirja, written by the "Runner" / Juoksija magazine's journalists and published in Finland in 1980). He ran significantly worse in the 1982 European Athletics Championships in Athens and in the 1983 World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland, placing only tenth and twelfth, respectively (see, for example, "The Great European Championships Book" / Suuri EM-kirja, published in Finland in 1990; "The World Athletics Championships 1983" / Yleisurheilun MM-kisat 1983, written by the "Runner" / Juoksija magazine's journalists and published in Finland in 1983). Ryffel's final few years as a competitive runner, after the Los Angeles Olympics, were also rather undistinguished. He placed third in a time of slightly over 14 minutes at 5,000 metres in the European Athletics Cup's B final in Budapest in 1985 (see various European countries' athletics statistics books for 1985 or their sports yearbooks for 1985). In the 1986 European Athletics Championships, he dropped out of the 5,000-metre final (see, for example, "The Great European Championships Book"). In his last major international championships, the 1987 World Athletics Championships, he placed well outside the top ten runners at 10,000 metres and was eliminated in the 5,000-metre qualifying heats (see, for example, "The World Athletics Championships 1987" / Yleisurheilun MM-kisat 1987).

References

• IAAF profile for Markus Ryffel
• sports-reference

Awards
Preceded by Michel Broillet	Swiss Sportsman of the Year 1978	Succeeded by Peter Lüscher

Persondata
Name	Ryffel, Markus
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 February 1955
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death