25 international sports events in Denmark in the summer of 2009 – and the autumn will be at least as busy

While the majority of the Danish population has either enjoyed or cursed about the summer, “Sports Denmark” has not had the time to wear out neither the grill nor the deck chairs. An enormous busyness has been characterizing June, July and August.

When August is over, Denmark has hosted as many as 25 international sports events during this summer. Just to mention a few: the Finn Gold Cup 2009 with a Danish winner, which came as a surprise; the European Match Race Championships; the European BMX Championships; the World Sidecar Motocross Championship; World Outgames and the Danish Festival of Sport and Culture in Holbæk etc.

– Totally, more than 30,000 athletes have participated, the majority at World Outgames and the Danish Festival of Sport and Culture. But also other events were quite large. As an example, the European BMX Championships had almost 1,500 riders and Dragon Gold Cup in Skagen at the beginning of August had more than 250 participants from the entire world. Among others HRH Crown Prince Frederik, who performed brilliantly and achieved a ranking as number 6 in a race against strong competitors, counting medal winners from previous Olympic Games, says Christian Ankerstjerne, Project Manager for the Danish Year of Sport 2009.

Because of the many sports events in Denmark, scheduled in the last 6 months of 2009, the Danish Year of Sport has been pleased to receive assistance to carry through some of the outward-oriented activities attached to the events. As for the sailing events, assistance through the employment of a sailing journalist, funded by the Danish Year of Sport, and earmarked to promote all the sailing events has been of great value. As an example, this journalist has sent out press releases in English to his huge network in connection with the largest of the sailing events.

As for the World Outgames, the event organisers have been promoting their mega-event intensely themselves and thanks to a solid press coverage this spectacular event has, if any, placed Denmark on the world map as a free and open-minded sports nation. Further to the many extremely positive articles in the Danish press many hundreds of articles have been exposed on the Internet and published in the international press.

Now the European Championship Waterski 2009 is coming up and in September the World Wrestling Championships. Later this autumn, the World Taekwondo Championships and the World Squash Championships for teams (men) as well as the prestigious IOC Session. In fact, 20 events are scheduled and more than 2,000 international journalists are expected to visit Denmark to cover the events.

You could say that the first 8 months of the year have been a build-up to the last 4. Though several exciting and media covered events have already taken place it is not till now that the really large events with millions of tv-viewers are about to begin.

The Danish Year of Sport 2009
2009 has been officially appointed as the Danish Year of Sport 2009. More than 50 international sports events and congresses are scheduled all over the country with the IOC Session and Congress in October in Copenhagen in the absolute first league. Together all the events will brand Denmark both nationally and globally as a strong sports event nation under the motto of “Inviting the World of Sport”. Please find the entire event calendar at www.sporteventdenmark.com.

For information about the Year of Sport and the many events during the year please contact Project manager Christian Ankerstjerne, ca@sporteventdenmark.com or +45 3051 0096.

For more information please visit www.sporteventdenmark.com.