Sprinting talent Milla Tonazzi drops out of school

All eyes in the Swiss sprinting scene are on the 19-year-old Milla Tonazzi from Risch. Can the fastest U20 runner of the 2025 season continue her rise to the top in the upcoming outdoor season?
 

Milla Tonazzi is currently focusing her daily life on sport – and not entirely of her own volition. The 19-year-old from Risch wanted to complete her vocational baccalaureate at OYM College in Cham, the school specifically designed for talented athletes. But she left last February, after only one semester.

The reason was a clash of dates with the highlight of the season. “The exams are in August – at the same time as the U20 World Championships,” she says. Because the resit date would not have been scheduled until a year later, and could then have clashed with another major event, the business-trained student dropped out of her course. She is currently looking for a part-time job.

Milla Tonazzi receives financial support from a private individual through the Swiss Sports Aid sponsorship scheme, the Lucerne-based company Finpension, and the Panathlon Club Zug. On top of this, she earns small fees for occasional appearances, such as a recent panel discussion with former world-class marathon runner Viktor Röthlin. The fact that she still lives at home helps too – financially, but not only that. “I’m a family person and I really enjoy being around my family,” she says. She also enjoys going for walks with her dog Ivy. in her rather limited spare time.

Faster than Géraldine Di Tizio-Frey
There‘s no room for complacency on the track, however: Milla Tonazzi set her personal best over 100 metres last summer, with a time of 11.64 seconds. At the age of 18, she was significantly faster than her club colleague and LK Zug star Géraldine Di Tizio-Frey at the same age (11.99 seconds). Together, the pair were also part of the surprise gold-winning relay team from Zug at the 2025 Swiss Championships.

Di Tizio-Frey heading for Africa
Swiss Athletics has selected 21 athletes for the unofficial World Relays Championships on 2nd and 3rd of May in Gaborone (Botswana). Géraldine Di Tizio-Frey from LK Zug has been selected for the 4 x 100 metre and mixed relay teams, in which she will be joined by Céline Bürgi, Ajla Del Ponte, Fabienne Hoenke, Salomé Kora, Natacha Kouni, Léonie Pointet and Chloé Rabac.

The Swiss women are currently ranked 13th in the world in the 4 x 100 metres and are competing for one of the twelve World Championship spots for the 2027 event in Beijing. The six highest-ranked mixed teams will also qualify for the inaugural World Ultimate Championships, taking place from the 11th to the 13th September in Budapest.

Milla Tonazzi is even stronger over 200 metres, however: no U20 athlete in Switzerland was faster than her last year. With her personal best of 23.60 seconds, she also ranked 9th among all Swiss female sprinters, and she achieved this time at the very peak of the season, at the U20 European Championships in Finland. Being able to deliver her best performance at major events is one of her strengths.

In her scarce free time, Milla Tonazzi also enjoys spending time with the family dog, Ivy
Milla Tonazzi at the Hertiallmend athletics track in Zug       
She trains in Zug and Zurich                Photos: Matthias Jurt 
 

To boost her confidence in her abilities, Milla Tonazzi also focuses specifically on her mental game. This includes keeping a training diary. In it, she notes, amongst other things, how she felt during the sessions and whether she achieved her goals. Honesty is key here. When asked whether she is completely honest, she replies: “Absolutely, it’s part of my self-reflection.” Dishonesty achieves nothing anyway, says Tonazzi, because: “You’re judged ruthlessly on your results.”

Indoor season was a setback
Her results did not go as well as hoped during the indoor season, however. Two younger athletes were faster than her over 200 metres, and MIlla Tonazzi also finished third at the Swiss U20 Championships. The Risch native sees this “setback”, as she puts it, as an incentive: “It’s good to see that I can still tweak a few things and that there is potential.”

The focus is now on the more important outdoor season, for which she is currently preparing at a training camp in Mallorca. In Switzerland, she trains mainly in Zug with Urs Henggeler, and additionally twice a week at LC Zurich in Daniel Baumgartner’s group. In the long term, 400-metre races could also become an option for the 1.80-metre-tall athlete. For now, however, the focus remains on the 200 and 100 metres – partly because she is part of the Swiss 4 × 100-metre relay project.

The first key date of the season is the 16th July: on this day, the two starting places for the U20 World Championships will be allocated at the trials held during the international meeting in Lucerne. Milla Tonazzi will kick off her season in May, possibly at the spring meeting in Zug.