5 Sterne Redner

On a running tour, extreme athlete Buecher is talking to young people

On October 4, 2018 the starting shot for an extreme and extraordinary project – the „7 CONTINENTS World Tour“ by extreme athlete Norman Buecher - was fired in Strasbourg/France. The Global Topspeaker and motivation coach plans to run through 70 countries on seven continents within a period of seven years. In the course of the tour, the experienced marathon runner wants to gather the wishes, thoughts and hopes of children and young people all over the world. His goal is to then submit them collectively to the 79th UN General Assembly in New York. With his remarkable campaign, Norman Buecher wants to give children and young people a voice.

Inspired by the Olympic Torch that is carried from country to country, the symbol of the „7 CONTINENTS World Tour“ is a microphone with which Norman Buecher intends to record and document the children’s voices. At the same time, children and youngsters can express their opinions on the hompage accompanying the „7 CONTINENTS World Tour“. Global Topspeaker Buecher mainly is interested in seven questions: What is your biggest dream? What are you afraid of? What makes you happy? What do you expect from the future? If you were the mayor of your town what would you change first? What does nature mean to you and what would you like to say to the heads of state and government?

The first leg of his „7 CONTINENTS World Tour“ that started at the European Parliament in Strasbourg took the extreme athlete in several stages through the Southern part of Germany and over a distance of 750 km to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Norman Buecher completed this part of the trip in 17 days and interviewed more than 1,500 children and adolescents on the way already. The answers and openness of his young interview partners took the Global Topspeaker by surprise, however: „The children and young people clearly and precisely expressed what was on their minds“, sums up Buecher.

22 year old Maya, for instance, answered the question about her biggest dream as follows: „That humans and nature will live in harmony one day and that I can leave my children a fairer and more just society without feeling that I had been nothing but a mere drop in the ocean.” With regard to fears, 20-year-old Adalie said: „I’m afraid that someday the earth will no longer exist due to the consequences of our actions.” Raphael, 19 years old, commented on the nature aspect: „Nature is a gift to mankind. We should be aware that nature will survive without us. But that we won’t survive without nature.“ And 17-year-old Eric reminded the heads of government: „Do not only look out for yourselves and your own interests but do serve the common good.“

Norman Buecher is already curious about the answers he will get in his interviews during the next stages of his tour. In 2019, it will be from Berlin to Istanbul. The endurance athlete plans to cover the more than 2,500 kilometres in about 50 days. The next stages of the „7 CONTINENTS World Tour“ will take him to Asia, Africa, Oceania, once again to Europe and then to South America and Antarctica even.When the athlete arrives at the UN in New York on September 23, 2024 as planned, he will have covered a distance of 20,000 kilometres. And in his luggage, he will have countless wishes and requests from adolescents from a large variety of nations – a clear message to the world’s leaders that hopefully will be heard.