Spectrum: Together with Red Bull, the bicycle manufacturer KTM from Austria is an important partner of the Wings For Life Worldrun. The charity run was followed and supported this year with more than 35 KTM e-bikes as “accompanying vehicles”. A matter close to the heart, which is illustrated at KTM with the topic of e-bikes, because people with physical disabilities want to be able to move more extensively again and to increase their quality of life and freedom of movement.
KTM and the Wings for Life World Run
The Wings for Life World Run is a run for everyone. How long and how far you want to run is entirely up to you. There is no fixed distance like in a marathon. Instead, all participants run away from the so-called catcher car – the moving finish line. This starts half an hour after the runners and increases its speed at fixed intervals. As soon as you are overtaken by the Catcher Car, you have reached your individual goal. The KTM e-bikes accompany the runners on the route and even act as a kind of lead vehicle for the frontrunners. Without the great performance of the e-bikes, such an undertaking would be unthinkable, because some of the best runners are over 20 km/h and over 90 km on the way. This also requires a powerful engine with a decent range.
The most important point of the Wings for Life Worldrun is of course the social aspect. Each participant supports research into a cure for paraplegia. True to the motto running for those who can't walk. 100% of all entry fees and donations go to important research projects to heal the injured spinal cord. This is only possible because the administrative costs for both Wings for Life and the events are borne by the Red Bull company, which is supported by partners such as KTM.
Running for the people who can't run is something I take for granted. There are so many people who would like to walk but can't because of paraplegia - as a person with two healthy legs and a healthy spine you can't whine because your feet hurt! Apart from that, the focus is on a good cause and the knowledge that 100 percent of my entry fees flow into spinal cord research - something is really going on there. Just a brilliant cause that I support 100 percent. – Andi Goldberger, ran 2016 km at the Wings for Life World Run 41,94
As an official partner of the Wings for Life Worldrun, KTM is also driving the development of its e-bike series. On the one hand, the models offer a fun and alternative training method that can also be used particularly well as a regenerative training tool or, for example, for coordinative training units. A very important aspect for KTM is also to make people with restrictions or handicaps mobile again due to illnesses or injuries or to support their rehabilitation. The “e-bike” option promises greater freedom of movement and thus a higher quality of life, since you can be on the road with family and friends again with less stress. Here they also support the former skier Matthias Lanzinger, who thanks to the e-bike can spend more time with his family again, since he is part of many tours together again. In addition, training on an e-bike can significantly speed up the rehabilitation process after an injury. Some winter sports enthusiasts use an e-bike after a cruciate ligament rupture, for example, because the motor support allows lower loads while training, but at the same time the entire leg muscles, circulation and balance are trained in order to get fit again more quickly during the comeback. One would also like to offer these advantages to people with disabilities in order to enable them to (re)enter the sport and thereby significantly improve their overall quality of life. These goals are particularly important for KTM, because by supporting Wings for Life they not only want to help spinal cord research to be successful in the future, but also want to support those affected in the present and accompany them on their way.