Wings For Life World Run 2025: Celebrities Line Up For Latest World Record Attempt In Charity

The 2025 Wings for Life World Run on Sunday, May 4, will call upon sporting celebrities such as Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer Jurgen Klopp, Chinese freeskier Eileen Gu, and Slovenian cycling star Primoz Roglic to inspire participants around the world to help break the event’s own record as the largest running event globally. (More Sports News)

There is still time to register for the race at locations across the globe and pass the current record of 265,818 participants, with all funds raised helping to find a cure for spinal cord injury.

Since the first race in 2014, the previous editions of the Wings for Life World Run have seen a total of 1,559,534 registered participants from 195 nationalities run, walk and roll on all seven continents to raise a huge total of €51.93 million and help find a cure for spinal cord injury.

The Wings for Life not-for-profit spinal cord research foundation has been able to fund 213 research projects so far with the money raised, including important clinical trials that have seen participants regain function in their hands and even begin to walk again.

Michel Roccati, who has lived with paraplegia since an accident in 2017 and has been able to take his first steps again, said: "My life changed completely after being part of this clinical trial. To stand up and walk again means liberty – independence in several things in daily life."

They can either run individually using the Wings for Life World Run App or together in one of several Flagship Runs that has helped expand the race's popularity.

In 2024 alone, the 265,818 participants that came together around the world covered a cumulative distance of 2,036,495 km - equivalent to over five trips to the moon - with €8,100,000 raised.

The Wings for Life World Run has a unique format where people of all fitness levels will start simultaneously worldwide and are chased by the beloved "Catcher Car" moving finish line until it passes them to complete their race.

The 2025 race will see Flagship Runs in Poznań (POL), Breda (NED), Munich (GER), Vienna (AUT), Zug (SUI), Ljubljana (SLO) and Zadar (CRO) with App Run Events in over 400 locations, from rural settings to international hubs - each one offering its own course and amenities.

In Cape Town, South Africa, runners can be inspired by a stunning Table Mountain view, while at Austria's Red Bull Ring they will run on the same track used for Formula 1 and MotoGP with the most northerly App Run Event held in Tromsø, Norway - 350 km north of the Arctic Circle.

Former Liverpool football manager Klopp declared: "This is my first time participating in the Wings for Life World Run, and already I love it because it's about people coming together to do something extraordinary. In this case, people are coming together from all over the world to help find a cure for spinal cord injury – it's amazing!"

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Gu, who will be running in California where she was born, added: "Every step you take reverberates far beyond the individual. Hundreds of thousands of runners all over the world working as one to advance spinal cord research - now that's a movement."

Red Bull - BORA – Hansgrohe team cyclist Roglic enthused: "They say cyclists don't run – but I love to run. Join us at the Wings for Life World Run, where we'll be running for a good cause. Sign up for our team, be part of something bigger, and let's make a real difference together."

Other stars competing include surfing’s Carissa Moore (USA), trials rider Fabio Wibmer (AUT), triathlete Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR), American football quarterback Arch Manning (USA), gamer Masato Takahashi (JPN), rally racing’s Sébastien Loeb (FRA), tennis players Dominic Thiem (AUT) and Elena Rybakina (KAZ), cycling’s Tom Pidcock (GBR), basketball player Pascal Siakam (CMR), hurdler Karsten Warholm (NOR), skateboarder Ryan Sheckler (USA), father and son windsurfing athletes Björn Dunkerbeck (DEN) and Liam Dunkerbeck (ESP), plus paddler Jessica Fox (AUS).