The canton of Graubünden celebrates its first swinging king with Armon Orlik

The 2025 Swiss Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival (ESAF) in Mollis was, after the 2022 ESAF in Pratteln, the largest Swiss wrestling festival, after all, the title of king is only awarded every three years. No other wrestling festival brings together more wrestlers than an ESAF. A total of 274 wrestlers registered to compete in Mollis for the title. Of course, the current wrestling king, Joël Wicki, was keen to defend his title. Other top favorites for the crown included Samuel Giger, Werner Schlegel, Fabian Staudenmann, Matthias Aeschbacher, Adrian Walther, Pirmin Reichmuth, and the young Michael Moser, along with Armon Orlik.

No other wrestler this weekend seemed as determined to win the title as Armon Orlik. It was as if an inner voice spoke to him, saying, "This is your big chance! If you give it your all, you'll be king in the end!" No other wrestler entered the duels with such determination as Armon this weekend. The two top favorites, Fabian Staudenmann and Samuel Giger, had to compete against each other in the very first round and suffered a severe setback with a "Gestelleten," which in wrestling terminology means a draw and a score of 8.75. The wrestling festival should not have started this way. But Armon Orlik also faced a tough challenge in Matthias Aeschbacher, the finalist and final round participant of the ESAF 2022. But his determination and fighting spirit were unyielding from the very first second on the field, securing his first victory and a good start to the festival. At the end of the first day, Werner Schlegel was at the top of the rankings, closely followed by the other favorites.

Unfortunately, the ESAF 2025 was also marked by several incorrect decisions by the judges, which led to discontent among those involved. For example, former king Joël Wicki was denied his clear victory against Romain Collaud, thus eliminating him from the race for the title, and Werner Schlegel was also extremely annoyed by the referee's incorrect decision in his fight against Curdin Orlik. In Swiss wrestling, too, it is long past time to review controversial decisions using video evidence and, if necessary, correct them.

After seven tough and long rounds, the following three wrestlers led the rankings with 67 points: Armon Orlik, Werner Schlegel, and Samuel Giger. One of them would now become the new wrestling king. First, the judges had to decide which of the three wrestlers would advance to the final round: The judges chose Werner Schlegel and Samuel Giger in the final round. All other wrestlers had to advance to the 8th round. Armon Orlik was assigned the difficult task of wrestling in the 8th round against the 1.98 m tall Pirmin Reichmuth, who is not for nothing considered one of the best wrestlers in Switzerland. And Armon knew that he had to leave the match with a 10 if he wanted to retain his title of king. And with an incredible feat of strength, Armon Orlik actually managed to put the 2-meter giant on his shoulders and collect the 10 points. Now only the final round awaited the spectators. Both participants in the final round knew that they had to emerge from the sawdust with a 10 if they wanted to become Schwinger King. Both top wrestlers know each other well and knew that if they over-committed themselves, there was a great danger of a counterattack, which could cost them both the victory and their chance. Furthermore, the two have known each other for a long time and each knows the other's style, which didn't make it easy. So the two from Eastern Switzerland competed against each other, yet were always somewhat reserved for fear of being caught in the other's counterattack. In addition to the tiredness and exhaustion after two full, long days of fighting, the fear of losing unnecessarily and the knowledge of each other's strengths paralyzed the two wrestlers, so that nothing but a 16-minute long struggle resulted. Both wanted to achieve their dream, but ultimately failed. Therefore, the final round ended in a draw and 8.75 points for both wrestlers, which sealed Armon Orlik's victory.