Background
Rüegg grew up in Tuggen and took part in several different sports in his youth, including skiing, gymnastics, athletics, football and ice hockey.
Rüegg grew up in Tuggen and took part in several different sports in his youth, including skiing, gymnastics, athletics, football and ice hockey.
He acted as a forerunner for the prestigious Lauberhorn downhill race in Wengen, and also competed in Europa Cup and FIS Tour alpine skiing events before leaving the sport in the early 1990s due to back problems. In addition he competed in steinstossen (stone-throwing) competitions (winning multiple national individual and team titles) and decathlon during the 1990s, breaking the decathlon points record for the canton of Schwyz in 1994 and 1996 and setting a personal best of 7,071 points. He first tried bobsleigh as a push athlete in 1992, before starting as a driver in 1996 and taking the Swiss junior title the same year and taking two bronze medals at the 1997 Junior World Championship.
Rüegg competed in two Winter Olympics, earning his best finish of fourth in the two-man event at Vancouver in 2010.
In May 2010 he announced his retirement from top-level sporting competition.