It is not long until hundreds of thousands of participants worldwide will gather to start the most unusual running spectacle known.
ON MAY 7, 2023, the world’s most unusual running event format will celebrate its 10th edition. Alongside all the running heroes, this year’s Wings for Life World Run will also see more stars taking to the start than ever before.
By joining forces, they will give the event’s sole objective of finding a cure for spinal cord injury a considerable boost. There is still time to join the global movement at www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com
It is not long until hundreds of thousands of participants worldwide will gather to start the most unusual running spectacle known. All over the globe, people will attempt to outpace the Catcher Car: a chase car released 30 minutes after the official start to catch the runners one by one. The run is over for anyone who is overtaken by the Catcher Car.
What makes this particularly exciting is that the Catcher Car is both a real car, as seen at the seven Flagship Runs, and a digital version for the App Runs, which can be started simultaneously anywhere in the world by anyone using the Wings for Life World Run App.
When @danielricciardo and @yukitsunoda07 tell you to do something, you do it.
Register, register, register for fun, fun, fun of the #wingsforlifeworldrun TOMORROWhttps://t.co/Z0eN8UtWFg pic.twitter.com/aP9ovhQwc7
— Wings for Life World Run (@WFLWorldRun) May 6, 2023
South Africa will celebrate the 10th edition of The Wings For Life World Run with two official App Runs taking place at Ruimsig Stadium in Roodepoort and East Gate Green Point Urban Park in Cape Town. The runs will start at 1pm and participants will have the luxury of choosing their own race pace as they run for those who can’t.
The beauty of this unique concept is the underlying principle that unites all the runners: every cent raised during the Wings for Life World Run flows one hundred percent into spinal cord research. And so far, more than one million people have run for those who can’t.
This year alone, over 150,000 runners are expected to participate in the 10th Wings for Life World Run. The anniversary run will also see more stars and VIPs than ever before. And on many levels too: Geri Horner, better known by her Spice Girls’ nickname Ginger Spice, is just as much a part of the party as Lance Bass, singer of the legendary boy band NSYNC, soccer hero Trent Alexander-Arnold and skateboarding star Leticia Bufoni, along with many more.
The importance of the commitment of each individual participant extends beyond the prominence of any personality and is primarily reflected in the funds that the Wings for Life World Run has been able to collect: 38.3 million euros (R777,336,800) have been generated by the nine Wings for Life World Runs to date. 100% of this total has gone to spinal cord research.
ONE DAY TO GO Since 2014, we've Wings for Life World Runned through
🌏195 countries
🫂1,086,988 people
👟 covered 10,266,770 km
💶 raised €38,029,785 for spinal cord researchWhat was your best moment?
💖#wingsforlifeworldrun pic.twitter.com/Pe1923t93a
— Wings for Life World Run (@WFLWorldRun) May 6, 2023
So far, 276 different projects have been funded to date, all of which were subjected to a rigorous selection process.
“Currently, 74 research projects are running worldwide,” says Dr. Verena May, Scientific Coordinator at Wings for Life. “This includes 16 new ones since 2022. Primarily in the fields of regeneration, reconstruction, and secondary damage.”
Currently, the RESET trial by Professor Stephen Strittmatter and Professor Jan Schwab of Ohio State University is attracting attention. The trial involves them looking at the Nogo trap, with the aim to get nerve fibres to regenerate.
But the sum of all the study and trial results to date has led Wings for Life CEO Anita Gerhardter to say quite bluntly today: “There will never be this one pill to cure everything. However, we can say: over the past few years, the wheels have been set in motion. A great deal has happened. It’s long since ceased to be a question of if there will be a cure, but when there will be one.
“The Wings for Life World Run is a big part of that through raising both awareness and valuable donations. It’s exciting and great to see what has evolved from our beginnings in 2014. A million runners have joined us over the years.”
Facts and figures:
• 1,086,988 people have taken part in a total of nine Wings for Life World Runs.
• 119 billion steps have been taken by previous participants.
• 38.3 million euros of donations have been collected by the Wings for Life World Runs alone. 100% of this total has gone to spinal cord research.
• 35,397 runners started the very first Wings for Life World Run in 2014. At the ninth edition last year, there were a staggering 161,892 people taking part from 192 nations.
• So far, participants have covered 9,034,954 kilometres in total.
