This year, the ‘classic’ Marathon will be complemented by another competition that promises to be interesting due to its innovative nature: the 6-runner Team Marathon with a differentiated course owing to the number and distance of the cities that the runners will reach, which we have already discussed in a previous article.
The success of this format (250 teams engaged) makes it a competition within the competition and bridges the gap with the corporate world by transforming the Marathon into not only an individual competition but also a team one. This is a first at an international level.
This theme was discussed on Wednesday evening during the launch of the Village in the context of a “Sports and Businesses” conference. We gathered some thoughts from the speakers.
Pascal Thiriot, President of Azur Sport Organisation: “We are ourselves a small business organizing sporting events with 4 employees and an annual budget of approximately 3 million euros. This compels me to stress the ever-growing importance of our private partners and especially our major partner, the Caisse d’Epargne, which shows us unwavering trust and loyalty every year alongside local authorities. But we have nearly 20,000 people running each year and, for instance, on Sunday we will be accompanied by 1,300 volunteers who will be integrated with the organizing team. What more can I say except that we are fully concerned with the sport/business partnership?”
Christophe Levรฉfre, President of the Sports Commission of UPE06:
Our ambition is to promote in our Alpes-Maritimes department the connection between the sports world and the business world to make them PARTNERS. We will create a space for dialogue and innovation, from which joint projects rich in possibilities will emerge for our department.
Our commission, which is the first of its kind to be created and structured nationally, aims to be the showcase of Medef on a national level.
Our objective is to structure the sports economic sector to showcase the expertise of our companies and promote the economic development of sports, in essence making sports a genuine lever for sustainable growth for our economy.
There are strategic axes that our commission is already working on to promote sports practice within and outside the company and participate in creating a real health prevention policy through sports practice.
Moreover, at a time when working hours are increasing, and the economic context is tense for companies, we must be concerned with improving well-being within companies. Healthy teams will contribute to the good health of the company and its efficiency. The Alpes Maritimes Relay Marathon is, in this regard, evidence of the happiness that actors from the same company feel when they engage together in a competition to share an experience and a sporting emotion. I point to the nearly 250 companies that have registered as proof.
We want to develop integration through sports, professionalize sports employment, and facilitate training and the reconversion of athletes within companies by developing pathways of excellence within the framework of the “sport and professional” double project for our athletes with a constant desire to inspire entrepreneurial vocations and help them become business creators.
And also encourage companies to invest in sponsorship and patronage, which will allow them to develop their image and increase their competitiveness.
