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A Look Back at adidas Runners Week 2024
2024 marked the third annual adidas Runners Week, an opportunity for Captains and Coaches from around the world to come together to learn, compete, and celebrate.
An action-packed week full of activities, it’s hard to choose a single moment that stood out from the rest. As with each adidas Runners week, the goal was for our runners to come away feeling a refreshed sense of belonging, deeper appreciation of running and community, and energized, ready to share their learnings with their local communities back home.
Read on to explore some of the key moments from the week:
Building Purpose: We learnt more about how we can create a safer running community for each other and our planet
Our purpose pillar is a key part of the work we do; offering our global community the opportunity to create impactful change, both for each other through With Women We Run, and creating a better running environment in the places we run in with our Move For The Planet initiatives.
During AR Week, attendees explored each of these themes in a set of impactful workshops. Kicking off the week, Captains and Coaches were broken into smaller groups to explore themes around With Women We Run, by sharing allyship stories, how to activate and cultivate more allies, and community operations.
Each discussion offered an opportunity for Captains & Coaches, alongside Market Representatives, to share the progress they’ve made in their local communities. Discussing best practices, tailored workshops and exercises they’ve introduced within their regions. Attendees were encouraged to think how they could introduce these practices for their own communities to find new ways in which we can come together and create global change on a local level.
Furthering the theme of unity and camaraderie, a panel talk hosted by members of the adidas Runners Sustainability Squad: Luke Date, Sarah Nouguier and Martin Torres, spoke about the importance of maintaining the places we play.
While the topic can feel quite daunting on the surface, a mini event pitch was set up to demonstrate and instil confidence in how each of the global communities can do their part, no matter how big or small. Following on from the inspiring discussion, Captains & Coaches were each set with a certain budget and a sustainable activity. Coming together to plan their assigned activation, they were tasked to plan, and present creative ways in which they would grow the seeds of an idea into a local activation.
During AR Week, attendees explored each of these themes in a set of impactful workshops. Kicking off the week, Captains and Coaches were broken into smaller groups to explore themes around With Women We Run, by sharing allyship stories, how to activate and cultivate more allies, and community operations.
Each discussion offered an opportunity for Captains & Coaches, alongside Market Representatives, to share the progress they’ve made in their local communities. Discussing best practices, tailored workshops and exercises they’ve introduced within their regions. Attendees were encouraged to think how they could introduce these practices for their own communities to find new ways in which we can come together and create global change on a local level.
Furthering the theme of unity and camaraderie, a panel talk hosted by members of the adidas Runners Sustainability Squad: Luke Date, Sarah Nouguier and Martin Torres, spoke about the importance of maintaining the places we play.
While the topic can feel quite daunting on the surface, a mini event pitch was set up to demonstrate and instil confidence in how each of the global communities can do their part, no matter how big or small. Following on from the inspiring discussion, Captains & Coaches were each set with a certain budget and a sustainable activity. Coming together to plan their assigned activation, they were tasked to plan, and present creative ways in which they would grow the seeds of an idea into a local activation.
Changing lives through Sport: An Inspiring Panel Talk with Marco Arop, Ana Čerenšek and Dr. Pouria Taheri
Reigning 800m World Champion Marco Arop, Performance Psychologist Ana Čerenšek, Medical Coach Dr. Pouria Taheira, and Track & Field Coach and adidas Runners Poznań Captain Szymon Bytniewski, treated the adidas Runners Captains & Coaches to an insightful panel talk. The speakers touched upon the importance of mindset and community in achieving personal success.
Ana Čerenšek shared invaluable insights on mindset which provided our runners with a unique perspective on improving personal performance. Whilst Dr Pouria Taheria reinforced the importance of holistic training within daily running routines.
Our very own Syzmon Bytniewski, Captain of adidas Runners Poznań and Marco Arop spoke about the importance of community in achieving personal success, a value that particularly resonated with the adidas Runners audience. “You think it’s just the performance of an athlete that makes them great, but it’s really the community around them,” Marco shared.
The 60-minute session was a crowd favorite, and rightfully so. It gave a fresh perspective about how holistic training and competing in professional sport shares a deeper affinity with how community and the people around you are the true building blocks of success and accomplishment.
Ana Čerenšek shared invaluable insights on mindset which provided our runners with a unique perspective on improving personal performance. Whilst Dr Pouria Taheria reinforced the importance of holistic training within daily running routines.
Our very own Syzmon Bytniewski, Captain of adidas Runners Poznań and Marco Arop spoke about the importance of community in achieving personal success, a value that particularly resonated with the adidas Runners audience. “You think it’s just the performance of an athlete that makes them great, but it’s really the community around them,” Marco shared.
The 60-minute session was a crowd favorite, and rightfully so. It gave a fresh perspective about how holistic training and competing in professional sport shares a deeper affinity with how community and the people around you are the true building blocks of success and accomplishment.
Building Cultures and Stories: Learning about the Art of Storytelling
Storytelling is the core of adidas Runners – our people and community at the heart. It helps shape who we can become, in hopes to become symbols of hope to those who might not even realize they need it most. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in this day and age, which encouraged Captains and Coaches to reflect on how they can leverage social media to foster relationships within their respective communities.
On Thursday, we welcomed guest speaker and former adidas Runners London Captain, Shakira Akabusi, to share the power of connecting with people through social media. Shakira shared how she overcame adversity through sport and shed light on how by redefining our weaknesses, we can turn them into our greatest strengths. “What I’ve learnt over the years is that vulnerability and being able to share our weaknesses, that’s really probably our greatest strength,” Shakira shared.
The session culminated with a group task which required the community to unleash their creativity and create their own cohesive storytelling piece using a series of adidas Runners images from all over the world.
On Thursday, we welcomed guest speaker and former adidas Runners London Captain, Shakira Akabusi, to share the power of connecting with people through social media. Shakira shared how she overcame adversity through sport and shed light on how by redefining our weaknesses, we can turn them into our greatest strengths. “What I’ve learnt over the years is that vulnerability and being able to share our weaknesses, that’s really probably our greatest strength,” Shakira shared.
The session culminated with a group task which required the community to unleash their creativity and create their own cohesive storytelling piece using a series of adidas Runners images from all over the world.
We came together for some friendly competition at the track
What is adidas Runners without some running and action? In anticipation of Road to Records 2024 at the end of the week, Captains and Coaches then headed down to the adi-Dassler Stadium in the World of Sport to take part in a fast paced, competitive relay race with the members of the community hyping them up from the stands.
We conquered personal bests at the 2024 Adizero: Road To Records
We culminated adidas Runners Week with Road To Records, which saw the adidas HQ transform into a hub of celebration and competition. adidas athletes from around the globe for a day packed full of races to break world records.
Turning up the energy and firing up the runners taking part in the races, the iconic adidas Runners cheer zone was locked in, loud and proud, to cheer on the best runners of the world to beat their personal bests and break records.
Alongside the elite athletes taking part, community members also had the opportunity to break their own personal records in the open public 5K. Krzysztof Żygenda (adidas Runners Tricity), Mau Mendez (adidas Runners Mexico City) and Anestis Papoulias (adidas Runners Athens) set the pace and achieved top spot in the first wave whilst Andrea Albanesi (adidas Runners Milan), Dimos Chronopoulos (adidas Runners Athens) and Szymon Bytniewski (adidas Runners Poznań) crossed the line together in the second wave in true adidas Runners fashion .
Every year, it only gets bigger, better and bolder. adidas Runners Week 2024 left us with a stronger sense of identity, inspiration, and passion for community and running, as we look forward to growing our global community. We’re still in the thick of 2024, but we’re already looking forward to the 2025 edition of adidas Runners Week!
Not a member of adidas Runners? Join the community and run with us today.
To stay up to date with everything adidas Runners, including all the coverage of this year’s adidas Runners Week, follow us on Instagram.
Turning up the energy and firing up the runners taking part in the races, the iconic adidas Runners cheer zone was locked in, loud and proud, to cheer on the best runners of the world to beat their personal bests and break records.
Alongside the elite athletes taking part, community members also had the opportunity to break their own personal records in the open public 5K. Krzysztof Żygenda (adidas Runners Tricity), Mau Mendez (adidas Runners Mexico City) and Anestis Papoulias (adidas Runners Athens) set the pace and achieved top spot in the first wave whilst Andrea Albanesi (adidas Runners Milan), Dimos Chronopoulos (adidas Runners Athens) and Szymon Bytniewski (adidas Runners Poznań) crossed the line together in the second wave in true adidas Runners fashion .
Every year, it only gets bigger, better and bolder. adidas Runners Week 2024 left us with a stronger sense of identity, inspiration, and passion for community and running, as we look forward to growing our global community. We’re still in the thick of 2024, but we’re already looking forward to the 2025 edition of adidas Runners Week!
Not a member of adidas Runners? Join the community and run with us today.
To stay up to date with everything adidas Runners, including all the coverage of this year’s adidas Runners Week, follow us on Instagram.
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