The world is moving closer together today running, walking and rolling hand-in-hand for a good cause as, with an abundance of enthusiasm, 161,892 participants of 192 nationalities started off in 165 countries at 11am UTC in the ninth Wings for Life World Run – united as they run for those who can’t.
Among the participants are celebrities such as the president of Slovenia Borut Pahor, Danish windsurfing legend Bjørn Dunkerbeck, the Austrian former World Cup alpine ski racer Marcel Hirscher, FIA World RX Champion Timmy Hansen from Sweden, Belgian professional road and cyclocross racer Wout von Aert, long-distance runner Calum Neff from Canada and Norwegian 400m hurdles world record holder Karsten Warholm.
They all are being pursued and chased by Catcher Car drivers such as Adam Małysz (Poland), Anna Gasser (Austria) and Sophia Flörsch (Germany) with the race expected to be decided at around 3pm UTC.
In thousands of locations around the world, individual App Runners are taking part in the world’s biggest race at the moment, joined by the runners and wheelchair users of the seven Flagship Runs in Vienna (Austria), Munich (Germany), Zug (Switzerland), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Zadar (Croatia), Poznan (Poland) and Izmir (Turkey) as well as the participants at the 217 App Run Events.
100% of all entry fees and donations go directly to spinal cord research.
The Wings for Life World Run is currently being broadcast live on Wings for Life World Run and Red Bull TV