Matthias Kyburz

Matthias Kyburz (born 5 March 1990) is a Swiss competitor in orienteering and athletics. In orienteering, Kyburz has attained gold medals in the Junior World Orienteering Championships, European Orienteering Championships and the World Orienteering Championships. In athletics, Kyburz is a long-distance specialist; Kyburz attained the world record in 50km on a treadmill of 2:56:35 on 16 April 2020, breaking a record held by Florian Neuschwander. On 7 April 2024 Kyburz ran 2:07:44 in his Marathon debut, becoming the third fastest Swiss athlete of all time over the distance after Tadesse Abraham and his coach Viktor Röthlin, and achieving the qualifying standard for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Orienteering
Kyburz won a bronze medal in the Long Distance at the 2008 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden before achieving his only gold medal in the Sprint distance in 2009, and a bronze medal in his last year of eligibility in 2010. Following this, Kyburz took two years to win his first gold medal in the World Championships, winning the sprint distance at the 2012 World Orienteering Championships in Lausanne, ahead of Matthias Merz and Matthias Müller.

Following his 2012 success in the Sprint, Kyburz became an important competitor on the world stage, an all round orienteer with the ability to win any of the three individual orienteering disciplines. This has allowed him to win the Orienteering World Cup on six occasions: 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2023. For eleven years in a row (2008 to 2018) one of the two Swiss orienteers Matthias Kyburz or Daniel Hubmann won the Orienteering World Cup.

Kyburz has won eight World Orienteering Championships gold medals in five different disciplines: Sprint (2012, Lausanne), Sprint Relay (2014, Trentino), Knock Out Sprint (2022, Vejle), Relay (2015, Inverness and 2023, Flims-Laax) and Middle (2016, Strömstad, 2021, Doksy and 2023, Flims-Laax).

Kyburz has also won European Orienteering Championships gold medals in five different disciplines: Relay (2012), Sprint Relay (2021), Sprint (2016, 2018 and 2023), Knock Out Sprint (2021 and 2023), and Middle (2016 and 2018). Kyburz has won eight World Games medals of which three were gold in Cali 2013, one of each color at The World Games 2017, and a gold and a silver in 2022.

2023 was the best season for Kyburz, where he won the 2023 Orienteering World Cup, two gold medals and one silver medal at the 2023 World Orienteering Championships, and two gold medals and one silver medal at the European Orienteering Championships.

Following the introduction of the Knock-out sprint format in the 2021 orienteering season, Kyburz won every international event in the format until 2023, including in the 2021 European Orienteering Championships, the 2022 Orienteering World Cup and 2022 World Orienteering Championships, and the 2023 European Orienteering Championships.

Athletics
Kyburz attained the world record in 50km on a treadmill of 2:56:35 on 16 April 2020, breaking a record held by Florian Neuschwander. On 26 July 2020, Kyburz broke the course record in the K43-M category at the Swiss Alpine Marathon by 10 minutes, over 42.7 kilometers and 1324 meters of climb. Kyburz also won the Bern Grand Prix over 10 miles in 2022.

In around 2014, a sports doctor reportedly told Kyburz following a performance test that his test results were optimal for marathon running. The same doctor also had former World Championship bronze medallist Viktor Röthlin on his list of patients, and apparently told Röthlin that there was an orienteering competitor that had better results than either Röthlin or Tadesse Abraham. Following a successful 2023 orienteering season, Kyburz called Röthlin and asked Röthlin to coach him for the 2024 Paris Marathon in an attempt to beat the Olympic qualifying time.

In 2024, during his preparation for the Paris Marathon, Kyburz won the Swiss Championships in the Half Marathon in a time of 1:02:25, breaking his personal best by six minutes.

On 7th April 2024 Kyburz finished 7th in the Paris Marathon in a time of 2:07:44, within the qualification standard of 2:08:10 for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

On 9 June 2024, Kyburz came 21st at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in the half marathon in Rome in a time of 1:03:07.

World Cup victories

 * (p) = pursuit

Personal life
His brother, Andreas Kyburz, is also an international orienteering competitor. Kyburz has a child with fellow orienteer Sarina born in January 2024.