Planning for Big Week of Sports
politics
There are big plans for Salzburg until autumn 2023. In September, the old town will be dedicated to sports for a week. With a series of events, politicians at state and city level as well as many clubs want to awaken enthusiasm for sports and attract more young people to the city.
The starting signal for this new “Week of Sports” is on September 7th with the Altstadt-Rennradkriterium, a street race with around 40 professionals. One day follows a mountain bike race in the KO system, in which obstacles have to be overcome. In the main race, the title of state champion is also contested.
Lots of demonstrations to do
September 9th is followed by a day of fencing, judo, climbing, volleyball and even boxing. Professionals from these disciplines can also be admired on a show stage. On September 10th, the third edition of the so-called City Hill Climb, the tough bike race up the Hohensalzburg Fortress, will take place.
Christian Mohr is Vice President of the Salzburg Cycling Association: “We want to set impulses. Things died down after the 2006 World Cycling Championships. We now want to do great events again.”
revitalization of the old town
The end of the sports week should then be the business run on September 14th. The regional councilor Stefan Schnöll (ÖVP), who is responsible for the department, says that the ulterior motive is to prevent the uncontrolled growth of sporting events: “That’s why we want to present the sport in a compressed form within a week. Hopefully the business people will also be able to get something positive out of this event.”
The week of sports in the old town costs the state and city of Salzburg a total of around 150,000 euros.