Extreme athlete Norman Buecher runs 20,000 km for the world’s youth
Norman Buecher has substantial experience with extreme runs. Time and again, the adventurer takes on daring challenges and pushes himself to the limit: He completed the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc, an extreme marathon in the Alps, and ran 600 kilometres across the Atacama Desert in South America, to mention only a few. The „7 CONTINENTS World Tour” is divided into various stages of different lengths. The first leg started at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in France and initially took him to Baden-Baden in Germany and then on to Wurzburg and Halle (Saale). From there, Bücher will be continuing to Berlin, where he expects to arrive at the Brandenburg Gate after a total of 17 days and 750 kilometres.
Inspired by the Olympic Torch which is carried from country to country, the symbol of the „7 CONTINENTS World Tour” is a microphone with which Norman Buecher intends to record the voices of the young people. At each of the respective stage finishes of the first stretch of his run already, the Global Topspeaker is seeking dialogue with children and youngsters. To this end, events are planned where Buecher gives a student-friendly version of his lecture „Fit for life”. His message: Taking responsibility for one’s own life, showing respect to others and the environment, failing is a part of life but one should nevertheless have the courage to go one’s own way.
The Global Topspeaker also intends to address entrepreneurs as his message has an impact on them as well – only from a different perspective. In his presentation „7 CONTINENTS – Big visions begin in the mind”, Buecher speaks about the realisation of visions, using the „7 CONTINENTS World Tour” as an example. It’s about the borderline between the known and the unknown, between the comfort and the challenge zone. Using powerful pictures, he draws parallels between extreme sport and everyday business in an informative and entertaining way. Norman Buecher makes it clear that there is no direct route to a goal and that life is not only about attaining objectives. The task is rather who you have to become along the way in order to achieve it.
After the first major stretch with destination Berlin, the city of Istanbul will be next in 2019. The departure for the Turkish metropolis at the same time represents the official start of the first European stage of the journey with a total of nine intermediate destinations. The endurance athlete plans to cover the more than 2,500 kilometres in about 50 days. The next running adventures on this world tour will then take the Karlsruhe native to Asia, Africa, Oceania, once again to Europe and afterwards to South America and even Antarctica. Upon his arrival at the United Nations in New York in September 2023 – after seven years as planned – Global Topspeaker Norman Buecher will have run a total of 20,000 kilometres – halfway around the world – and will carry countless wishes, requests and concerns of young people from a large variety of nations in his luggage. An exclamation mark that cannot be ignored!