Swiss Olympic Application

In April 2026, the Swiss Parkour Association (SPKA) submitted an application to become a member of Swiss Olympic.

This page provides information about the membership application process, the relevant requirements and procedures, and the current status of SPKA’s application.

Why Swiss Olympic Membership Matters

Swiss Olympic is the umbrella organisation for organised sport in Switzerland and serves as the National Olympic Committee.

For SPKA, membership in Swiss Olympic would be an important step towards institutional recognition within the Swiss sport system. It would allow SPKA to participate in decision making processes in Swiss sport and strengthen the position of Parkour as an independent sport in Switzerland. Membership can also improve access to direct and indirect funding opportunities, as Swiss Olympic recognition is often relevant for public funding processes at national, cantonal and municipal level.

Becoming a Member of Swiss Olympic

The admission procedure involves several stages of review and consultation. At its core, however, two elements are decisive: an applicant must fulfil the membership criteria defined in the Swiss Olympic statutes, and its admission must be approved by the Swiss Olympic Sport Parliament. The following sections provide an overview of these two central elements. Further details on the full procedure can be found in the Swiss Olympic statutes and their implementing provisions.

Membership Criteria

The statutes of Swiss Olympic define a set of criteria a new member must fulfill.

Criteria	SPKA
Has the legal structure of an association	✅
Has the goal of promoting physical activity or sport	✅
Counts at least 20 clubs and/or 1000 members	✅ SPKA Members
Is represented in ≥2 linguistic regions of Switzerland with ≥3 clubs	✅ In two regions
Has been in existence for at least 5 years	✅ since 2018
Is a member of an international federation recognized by the IOC, or promotes sport, respect ethical values and has a national competition system	✅see SPKA Factsheet and Statutes

Voting

The final decision on the admission of new national sport federations lies with the Swiss Olympic Sport Parliament. The voting members are the existing members of Swiss Olympic. Member organisations hold different numbers of voting rights, which are mainly determined by their membership size.

SPKA’s application is expected to be voted on at the Swiss Olympic Sport Parliament on 20 November 2026. Admission requires a two thirds majority of the voting rights present.

Challenges

Although SPKA has submitted documentation showing how it fulfils the statutory membership criteria, fulfilment of these criteria does not guarantee admission. The Swiss Olympic Sport Parliament may reject an application even if all requirements are met. Applicants also have no automatic right to attend or be heard during the deliberations, and the final decision does not have to be accompanied by reasons.

If an application could affect sports that Swiss Olympic considers to be represented by existing member federations, the potentially affected federations may be consulted as part of the review process.

From SPKA’s perspective, this creates a particular challenge, as there are differing views on how Parkour should be governed and represented within the Swiss sport system.

For a more detailed discussion of these challenges, read Yann Daout’s blog post: https://spka.ch/en/swiss-olympic-blogpost/