Viktor Röthlin will be making his ING New York City Marathon debut this year on 6 November 2005. Röthlin is the national marathon record-holder and a 2000 and 2004 Olympian.
Only one Swiss man, seventh-place finisher Daniel Boltz in 1991, has cracked the top 10 in New York. The late Franziska Rochat-Moser of Switzerland won the women's race in 1997 in 2:28:43. Rochat-Moser died in a climbing accident in 2002.
Röthlin, 30, of Kerns, set a Swiss record of 2:09:56 in his first-place finish at the 2004 Zurich Marathon. He was also the 2004 Swiss 5000m champion. Röthlin represented Switzerland in the 2000 Olympic marathon in Sydney, where he finished 36th (2:20:06), and finished 14th at the 2003 World Championships Marathon in Paris in 2:11:14.
