Witness the Olympic connection of China's tallest building: the world's first women's vertical marathon race kicks off in Shanghai Tower
June 23 is the annual "International Olympic Day". Olympic Day was established by the International Olympic Committee in 1948 to commemorate the birth of the modern Olympic Games and encourage all mankind to actively participate in sports.
On June 23, 2024, the world's first women's vertical marathon event, the first Shanghai Tower Women's Vertical Marathon, was successfully completed at the Shanghai Tower, China's tallest building. 500 female runners from many countries and regions rushed to the top of Shanghai. The organizers hope to promote the Olympic concept and advocate a lifestyle of fitness for all people through this new event.
In the end, Chinese athlete Zhi Xinran won the first place with a time of 7 minutes and 1 second, and Le Qinghua and Xu Heping won the second and third place respectively. It is reported that Zhi Xinran came to Shanghai Tower for the first time to compete, and he won the championship by defeating many veterans who participated in the Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon, showing his "dark horse" nature.
If a marathon is to run through the entire city and measure the width of a city with your feet, then vertical running is to feel the height of a city with your feet. The Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon was founded in 2017. It is a self-branded event created by Shanghai Tower and has been certified as a major international and domestic event by the Shanghai Sports Bureau since 2018.
Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China. The scale and international influence of the Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon are increasing year by year.
As an international sports event, the scale and international influence of the Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon have increased year by year. The event has obtained three authoritative authorizations and has been certified as the top "TowerRunning240" level in the Tower Running Association's event points. It has also been awarded the "TWA Race History Highest Competition Height Record" and the "TWA Race History Highest Competition Building Record". It is the world's largest, highest-points, and tallest competition building top event.
To finish the vertical marathon at Shanghai Tower, runners have to climb from the 1st floor to the 119th floor, crossing 3,398 steps and reaching a height of 552 meters. Due to the irreplaceable height and experience of the Shanghai Tower Marathon, it has always been recognized by vertical marathon enthusiasts as the "world's highest vertical marathon track" with the best experience.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon, and Shanghai Tower has launched a new women's vertical marathon event. The women's event is also a sub-brand of the vertical marathon event, laying the foundation for the improvement and development of the Shanghai Tower vertical marathon event system. The event highlights female participation, the difficulty of the competition is reduced, and the event culture is more popular, more friendly, and more distinctive.
June 23rd is Olympic Day. Shanghai Tower hosted the world’s first women’s vertical marathon, where runners experienced the joy of crossing the finish line.
In the Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon, participants need to climb a 632-meter-high skyscraper, experience a 552-meter-high vertical track, and complete 3,398 steps. In comparison, the first Shanghai Tower Women's Vertical Marathon is only one-third of the former - the track is from the 79th to the 119th floor of the Shanghai Tower, and the number of floors climbed and the height are only about one-third of the former.
In addition to the competition, the organizers also held a three-day carnival event to bring more rich sports and trendy play experiences to sports enthusiasts. The author saw at the event that the organizers set up multiple interactive areas so that contestants and spectators could feel the fun and charm of sports while enjoying the competition.
As the world's first women's vertical marathon event, the results of the competition have attracted much attention.
As an elite runner, Le Qinghua participated in last year's Shanghai Center Vertical Marathon. She started as the first group of runners on the 23rd and was the first to cross the finish line. However, the final result showed that although her time of 7 minutes and 9 seconds was excellent, she could only come in second.
"That's normal, because my training has not been systematic during this period. I just sprained my ankle and am still recovering." Le Qinghua said that his hometown is Sanming, Fujian, but he usually works and lives in Shanghai. "I am a vertical marathon runner and ranked sixth in the world. Of course, I was a swimming coach at first. Later, I found that I had some talent through publishing, and then I specialized in marathons and even vertical marathons."
After finishing the race, Le Qinghua especially praised the track environment and the level of competition organization. She said: "The main thing is that the track is clean and tidy, relatively spacious, and the organization of this competition is very professional and fair. I have encountered some accidents in other competitions before, such as no results or videos at the finish line, and the final results of the competition are unclear. The vertical marathon in Shanghai Tower is very professional, and there are no off-site factors that worry the runners. We just need to race with peace of mind." She also revealed that she will definitely participate in the full race at the end of the year, "This is a major race with 240 points, which is the second highest score among all events in the world. As elite runners, we will definitely not miss it!"
With the popularity of road running, especially the continuous development of China's sports and fitness industry, more and more women are joining the sports team, and female sports enthusiasts have become the main force in the fitness consumer market. Looking around the world, women's participation in marathons is increasing. In the Boston Marathon, the world's oldest marathon, more than 40% of runners are female.
International Olympic Committee Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. strongly supports the holding of this event.
The Beijing Marathon has included women's marathons since 1988. In recent years, women in the United States, New Zealand, Canada and China have been the most active in participating in marathons. In some mixed marathons, female runners have accounted for more than 30% of the total number of participants. In addition, the United States, Japan, China and other countries hold many women's marathon events every year.
Compared with traditional marathons, the women's vertical marathon, which is exclusively for women, is indeed a new thing. The author found at the scene that the female runners participating in the first Shanghai Tower Women's Vertical Marathon have one thing in common: whether it is body shape, sportswear or facial makeup, they all give people a sense of "fashion and beauty", showing their pursuit of beauty and health.
A body monitoring area was specially set up near the starting area for the contestants to provide health monitoring services for the participating female contestants. Popularizing healthy participation is the prerequisite for sports. In the beauty area, contestants lined up in a long line, and there were many makeup artists on site to provide professional services. In the braiding area, contestants can choose hair styles to show a new self. In the painting area, contestants can also enjoy painting services on their faces, necks, arms and other parts. A female office worker who participated in the competition said frankly: "These free trial services make people feel very considerate. Sports are not about suffering and hatred. Who doesn't want to take beautiful photos?"
After the game, players can get professional relaxing massage services.
The contestants took a meaningful photo after finishing the race.
On the Xiaohongshu platform, which attracts more young white-collar women, the surge in searches for sports notes proves that women value and participate in fashion sports. "About 70% of the users on this platform are female, and their searches for sports have increased hundreds of times in recent years," said Gu Xiaojie of ASICS Trading Co., Ltd. In addition to the increasing and improving understanding of sports among female white-collar workers, they are more pursuing physical and mental health. "In addition to physical health, participating in sports can help you relax and temporarily forget about workplace troubles. This trend of pursuing mental health is very obvious. More and more women are falling in love with sports, especially fashion sports, which is in line with the background of the times. I call it sports under a self-pleasing lifestyle, which is actually more like a form of self-healing."
Medical care and event services are also very professional.
A 55-year-old contestant experienced the feeling of being a goddess after finishing the race. After crossing the finish line, she received a white rose with dew from the volunteer, and received the finisher's package, which included sports drinks, banana bread supplies, medals and souvenirs, amid the congratulations of "Congratulations on finishing the race". Afterwards, she came to the exclusive check-in point and left a proud smile after successfully completing the race; finally, a stretching area was set up at the finish line, where female contestants who had just finished the race could lie down on the massage mat in an instant, enjoy professional and scientific muscle massage and relaxation services, and greet the new day in a full of energy.
On June 23, 1894, Pierre de Coubertin, the "Father of the Modern Olympics", convened various sports organizations at the Sorbonne University in Paris and proposed the restoration of the Olympic Games. In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games was successfully held in Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. In 1948, to celebrate the birth of the modern Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee launched Olympic Day for the first time. Since then, June 23 has become a symbol of sports and Olympism.
In 2018, Juan Antonio Samaranch experienced the fun of the competition.
At the press conference for the women's vertical marathon held on May 10, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, founder and honorary chairman of the Samaranch Sports Development Foundation, and image ambassador of the Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon, expressed his congratulations on the women's vertical marathon. He pointed out that June 23 is International Olympic Day, which is celebrated all over the world. Gender equality is one of the Olympic spirits, and it is very meaningful to hold the first Shanghai Tower Women's Vertical Marathon on this day.
Samaranch Jr. also gave special praise to the city of Shanghai and the venue of the competition. "Shanghai Tower can be used as the venue for the vertical marathon not only because it is the tallest building in China, but also because Shanghai Tower provides a platform and culture for people from all over the world to communicate. There are few cities in the world that love sports as much as Shanghai, and the professionalism of hosting events makes all this possible."
From the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019, the first "Shanghai Olympic Expo" was held here to spread the Olympic cultural concepts.
In fact, as China's tallest building and a landmark of the city, Shanghai Tower has a close relationship with the Olympic movement and has been committed to popularizing and spreading the Olympic education and cultural concepts. Since the first Shanghai Tower Vertical Marathon in 2018, it has been deeply marked by the spread of Olympic culture - the Vice President of the International Olympic Committee and the founder of the Samaranch Sports Development Foundation, Juan Antonio Samaranch, was invited to serve as the image ambassador of the event. He also participated in the first event in 2018. At that time, the 59-year-old Juan Antonio Samaranch finished the race in 39 minutes. "My own feeling after the run was that I was so happy and it was so fun. We also hope to work with Shanghai Tower to better promote the vertical marathon as a sport to the world."
In 2019, in January before the event was announced, Shanghai Tower held a special Olympic Expo with the theme of "Glory and Inheritance". The exhibition was held in the Shanghai Tower Observation Deck on the 119th floor, and received more than 150,000 visitors from home and abroad. The Olympic spirit was spread through the landmark platform of Shanghai Tower, which not only promoted the event, but also helped promote the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. During the event, International Olympic Committee members Yu Zaiqing, Yang Yang, Li Lingwei, Zhang Hong, etc. also visited the site to help spread the Olympic concept.
The representative of the organizing committee of the event said that as a landmark building in Shanghai, Shanghai Tower has been committed to promoting the implementation of the Olympic concept, promoting the development of sports in Shanghai and China, and providing citizens with more high-quality sports resources and activity platforms. Shanghai Tower hopes to inspire women's enthusiasm for health and sports, build a female sports community, and provide comprehensive support for every stage of their sports journey by creating trendy and benchmark events. Through sports participation, women not only show their own style and strength, but also feel confident and powerful in sports.
