News04 Sep 2008


Words from the Meeting Director - Zurich 2008

FacebookTwitterEmail

Zürich - Patrick K. Magyar (© c)

ZürichPatrick Magyar

Zürich, Switzerland - Once upon a time the famous soul singer James Brown was dubbed 'The Hardest Working Man in Show Business' and, after his Beijing exploits, Patrick Magyar might be a candidate for the title of 'The Hardest Working Man in the Athletics Business'.

The Weltklasse Zürich meeting director and acknowledged sports marketing guru worked day and night in the Chinese capital to make sure that as soon as an Olympic champion was crowned, then he or she was signed up to come to his famous meeting if he had an event for them to compete in.

"We can boast of having 14 Olympic gold medallist here, more than 30 other medals - whether they are silver or bronze - and around 50 other finalists here this year. Statistically, it gives us an average of around seven Beijing finalists in our events here," commented Magyar proudly, after doing the numbers ahead of the fifth of this year's six ÅF Golden League meetings.

Not surprisingly, since we are talking about nicknames, the meeting has acquired the mantle of being an Olympics in One Evening, with a myriad of World records having been set in the Swiss city over the years.

Curiously though, Magyar isn't all that comfortable with that particular concept.

"I don't really like that phrase which people often use about this meeting. A big championship like the Olympics is really something else. But at least it gives a bit of a touch of us having the same quality of field."

This year the quality of the fields in Zürich is virtually proven by the presence of just one man, that steak of lightning in human form Usain Bolt.

However, Magyar has managed to secure the services of not only Bolt but six others of the seven other men that finished behind the Jamaican that contested the Olympic 100m .

"I think the men's 100m could prove to be the most expensive race we have ever put on here. Maybe the only race that could rival it was the men's 5000m in 1997 when Haile Gebrselassie broke the World record and about eight people set national records. That was so expensive in terms of performance bonuses," recalled Magyar.

The obvious question arises does Magyar expect to be paying a World record bonus to Bolt on Friday?

"If you expect a World record then you would be disappointed so often, you'd end up dying of frustration and I'm not expecting a World record from Usain here, even though the weather should be very good.”

"What I am expecting is a great performance, don't misunderstand me, but a World record is the icing on the cake because it is the unexpected and it is something unique.”

"In fact, we haven't taken out any insurance against any World record as that would suggest we are expecting a World record and I think that would be wrong.”

“But luckily we have enough reserves in the meeting finances that we can pay out some World record bonuses. I would be happy to make those payments and if we have to pay for four or five World records, well, we'll take them and we can still pay for them," smiled Magyar.

Clearly the Weltklasse Zürich coffers remain well in the black but Magyar admits they have taken a battering by virtue of them being the first big meeting after the Olympics in Beijing, which ended only on Sunday.

"It's been a very, very expensive flight bill and it takes lots of logistics," grimaced Magyar, clearly remembering the bills that have been coming in.

"But another practical issue that impacts on us with our position in the calendar is that we have lots of athletes that still need visas to come here. For that I have a big debt of thanks the Swiss Foreign Ministry's great support. The embassy in Beijing really worked hard for us in providing the necessary visas. We have the airport authorities here in Zurich also doing an incredible job. The impossible becomes possible and visas get fixed within a few hours in advance.

"The second area that is affected if you come straight after the Olympics in a place like Beijing is what actually happens here, in Zürich. You have to put much more effort into accommodation, transport, and particularly massage and physic compared to what happens in other years.”

"Most athletes need to come here straight from the Games - imagine if they went home to the United States and then back to here, they would be completely jet-lagged and almost dead. So we need to take care of athletes like they have gone home.”

"One thing our team is very proud of doing is to make the athletes comfortable and feel at ease, and I think we've proved over the years that," concluded Magyar.

The Zürich meeting's reputation for generosity, and not just in terms of cheques and chocolates, is one of the main reasons why Magyar can count on the superstars of the sport wanting to return year-after-year.

Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Loading...