Weather can’t stop them! More than 72,000 runners lined up at the start of the Olympic Run

The weather played games with the runners of the T-Mobile Olympic Run. Just a few tens of minutes before the start of the 37th Olympic Day celebration, on a very hot day, the sky became cloudy and streams of water came pouring down, with the wind breaking trees in many places. The storm even damaged the timekeeping system in the city of Brno. However, neither in Brno nor in the other 89 locations in the Czech Republic did the runners give up, lining up at the start line to celebrate the establishment of the International Olympic Committee. Over 72,000 runners competed to support the Olympic ideas and values more than ever.

Zuzana Hejnová, two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist in the 400 m hurdles, kicked off the main races via Czech Radio. She also ran the five-kilometer route herself in the Hvězda park in Prague. “It was a great honour and pleasure for me to start this race. I really enjoyed it, and I did the run myself,” she said at the finish line. “The route was very nice, although it was very wet after the heavy rain. But I believe that everyone did their best, and, most importantly, had a good time.”

Once again, we attracted thousands of runners who shared the Olympic ideas and values with us at the same moment across the entire country.

The T-Mobile Olympic Run is usually between 5 and 10 kilometers long, so that everyone can participate and discover their own unique way. It's not about athletic performance, it is about pushing your own boundaries. “Once again, we attracted thousands of runners who shared the Olympic ideas and values with us at the same moment across the entire country,” concluded David Novotný, project manager of the Run.

T-Mobile Olympijský běh 2023

The Run also supported a cause. A portion of each adult’s starting fee goes the Czech Olympic Foundation which helps finance sporting activities for children. This year, we raised CZK 474,300, and another CZK 100,000 the athletes helped donate through the EPP Pomáhej pohybem app, ČEZ Foundation.