My life
Gérald Métroz lost both legs at the age of two and a half, in a train accident. He went on to travel the world: elite athlete at the Paralympic Games, journalist, agent for professional hockey players, writer, singer.
Milestones
- 1962Born in Martigny, Switzerland
- 1964Train accident at Sembrancher station; both legs amputated
- 1974Secondary school in Orsières
- 1982Latin-English baccalaureate at the Collège de la Royale Abbaye de St-Maurice
- 1986Professional journalist's licence (RP)
- 1989Founds Gérald Metroz Sports Consulting
- 1991Publishes “Au cœur du hockey”, Compton, Sherbrooke, Canada
- 1996Competes in tennis at the Atlanta Paralympic Games
- 2001“Soudain un train” by Jacques Briod published by Autrement, Paris
- 2006Release of the documentary “Gérald Métroz, elle est pas belle la vie ?” by Jean-François Amiguet
- 2007Opening of “Despite the barriers” in Istanbul, by photographer Serdar Bilgili with Tempo magazine, on the inclusion of disabled people in Turkish society. The documentary screens at the 42nd Solothurn Film Festival
- 2019Publishes “La vie d'en bas”, Empiric Vision
- 2020Releases the EP “ON”, five tracks with music by Alain Laeri and Gérald Métroz, lyrics by Gérald Métroz
- Juillet 2020Releases the single “Fais-ci, fais ça”
Biography
Born in Martigny, Switzerland, in 1962, Gérald Métroz saw his life turned upside down in 1964 when he lost both legs in a train accident at the station of his home village, Sembrancher. Beyond the tragedy of that fate, he has made his life a fine adventure built on the friendship of those close to him and on the determination to construct his own professional and social world — following a career as an elite athlete that took him to the Atlanta Paralympic Games in 1996.
A sports journalist, club president, coach and author of books on international ice hockey, he founded and led GMSC (Gerald Metroz Sports Consulting), which became Gerald Metroz & Gaetan Voisard Third Eye Hockey in 2011 and Third Eye Services SA in 2014.
Today Gérald Métroz travels the world to share his experience and his enthusiasm through lectures and talks.
In “Soudain un train” (Éditions Autrement, Paris, 2001), journalist Jacques Briod introduced the world to Gérald Métroz's personality and charisma, revealing the leadership and motivational qualities of a man whose exceptional life has been widely followed and reported by the Swiss and international press. In April 2019 he ended his career as an agent, handing his sports management business to his partners. He now devotes himself to speaking, writing, songwriting and music.
The players' agent
Gérald R. Métroz — former sports journalist, club president, coach and author of books on international ice hockey — founded Third Eye Services SA (formerly Gerald Metroz Sports Consulting Sàrl) in 1991 and ran it for nearly three decades.
After a high-level sporting career — wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games — and two years in North American professional hockey, he drew on the NHL's way of working to build GMSC in the image of the best North American representation agencies. He put his public-relations experience and his knowledge of the game at his players' service, making Third Eye Services SA one of the most credible and respected agencies in Switzerland and Europe.
Gérald Métroz has been the subject of several books and features, as well as a documentary film, “Elle est pas belle la vie ?”, distributed worldwide from 2006. In 2019 he published “La vie d'en bas”, an autobiographical set of reflections on the world as he observes it from a wheelchair — lit quite differently from the view up above.
The artist
Having been a sports journalist, a club president and a coach, Gérald Métroz likes to turn artist: singing songs, writing their lyrics and sometimes their music, playing harmonica or piano — a kind of therapy for the soul, and ears for the heart.