The Engadin Ski Marathon is Switzerland's largest cross-country skiing event. More than 13,000 participants — including many world-class runners — make the “Engadin” a popular and very diverse media topic. gartmann.biz has been responsible for media relations on the day of the event since 2014.
“A local wins the Engadin Ski Marathon”, was the title of the media release at the end of the 47th Engadin. Ilja Chernousov proverbially “went home” for his first victory: The Russian lives with his wife, biathlete Selina Gasparin, and newborn daughter in the destination town of S-chanf. A very nice story for local media.
At the Engadin Ski Marathon, local needs must be met in the same way as national or international ones. In addition to media operations in the press center at the destination, Christian Gartmann is also responsible for media relations at the two events “Women's Run” and “Engadin Ski Marathon”. Together with the organizing committee and volunteers, he supervises media professionals and their needs.
During the event phase, around a dozen media releases and Background texts published, answered individual inquiries and met the specific needs of various media professionals. For social networks, content is provided and published in text, images and video, and queries from users are also answered.
Crisis communication following a medical emergency
The Engadin Ski Marathon moves around 25,000 people between Maloja and S-chanf: participants, helpers, relatives, supervisors and spectators. Incidents and crises must always be expected during such a major event. As part of the crisis organization, the media manager is constantly prepared for major events. Crisis communication has no lead times.
It is often individual fates that move the day; most never become a media topic. Shortly after the start, however, one participant suffered a cardiovascular arrest.
The man was lucky: he was resuscitated and stabilized by REGA, which arrived just a few minutes later, and flown over to the Chur Cantonal Hospital, where he received further treatment.
As well as the rescue worked, it was difficult to reach the participant's wife. Race doctor, OK and the media officer worked hand in hand on this. At the same time, it was always expected that rescuing the man by helicopter would become a media topic; after all, thousands of participants had passed by the accident.
It was only when his wife had been reached that the media could also be informed.
All's well that ends well: After race day, there were many happy faces in S-chanf. Almost all of the approximately 13,000 participants and their companions had a wonderful day, the media received their pictures and stories, and the Engadin benefited from an invaluable presence in the world media.
Links to this
- Engadin Ski Marathon website with media information
- Engadin Ski Marathon Facebook page
- “Liveimage” picture gallery by swissimage.ch
gartmann.biz has been responsible for the media operations of the Engadin Ski Marathon since 2014. Christian Gartmann is media manager for the event.