They intend to turn it around when the seniors world curling championships are held at the Dunedin Ice Stadium next week.
The five strong team from the Kusnacht club of Zurich are the current national champions and will be representing Switzerland for the seventh time.
They won bronze medals at Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2006 and Finland last year.
"We want another medal, but a different colour this time," skip Renate Nedkoff said yesterday.
"But we have to beat all the other teams to do this and everybody is tough."
Nedkoff (59), an architect, has been curling since 1994 and will be using all her guile to take her team to the podium.
The most experienced member of the team is Lotti Pieper (62), a nurse, who has been curling for 35 years.
The other members of the team are therapist Silvia Niederer (59), business manager Brigitta Keller (60) and physiotherapist Irene Goridis (58).
Andre Pauli (57), a painter and plasterer, is the skip of the Bern Inter club men's team that is representing Switzerland for the first time.
He took up curling in 1974 and is the longest serving curler in the men's team.
His lead, Daniel Gruenenfelder (60), a retired banker, started six years later.
The other members of the team are restaurant manager Andre Pauli (53), teacher Fritz Pulfer (58) and businessman Heinz Kneubuehler (66).
"I like curling because it is a mental game and requires a lot of thinking," Gruenenfelder said.
"Getting picked for this event was the most important day of my curling career."
The team has played together off and on for the last 20 years between family and work commitments.
Gruenenfelder is picking Canada and Scotland as the teams to beat in the men's event.
"Our chances depend on how well we start in the first two games," he said.
"Once you are in the semifinals anything can happen."
The seniors championships will be officially opened on Monday morning and the finals of the six day championships will be held on Saturday afternoon.
