The Half’s Tour by Team KM226 : 8 000 km for medical research
06/17/2021
It all started in 2013… that year, a 15-year-old boy – Hugo, was diagnosed with an optic nerve tumor. Losing sight, little by little, he almost became blind and today he can barely see anything. But in the Weinberg family, we are strong athletes, and we don’t let things bring us down easily! Olivier, the father, is a triathlete, ultra-trailer and winner of a triple Ironman (677kms) in Denmark. Carla, the daughter, a triathlete and a 5th year student of the Grande Ecole Program at IÉSEG, is Luxembourg champion of long distance swimming, and participated in the French Open Water Cup in 2016. Finally, Hugo, a para-triathlete, was a member of the French collective from 2014 to 2016 and multiple French youth champion in handisport swimming. Together, they founded the association Team KM226 in 2019 and in January of this year, they embarked on a major sport challenge: the Half’s Tour by Team KM226!
A sport challenge for the benefit of medical research
What is the goal of this challenge? To complete the 70 Half-Ironman organized in France, whether alone, in duo, in team or in relay. For each event, they will have to cover 113 kms, all disciplines combined (swimming, cycling, running). With an average of one event per month, the family will have covered nearly 8,000 kms in five year – a big challenge even for high-level athletes! Since January 2021, they have already completed four stages that Hugo covered entirely thanks to the support of his Team members (Carla, Olivier and Valérie).
But this challenge is much more than just a sport challenge: the “Team KM 226” association’s objective is to donate 5€ per kilometer covered to the “Institut de la Vision” in Paris, to support research on sight diseases and visual handicap. A large crowdfunding campaign has been launched, as well as the search for sponsors and partners to which Carla is dedicated, putting to good use the teaching she received during her course at the School.
IÉSEG, a major asset to succeed in this challenge
“IÉSEG has brought me a lot to prepare for this project. Throughout my studies, and during the solidarity project in my second year, we learned to develop marketing contents, create presentation brochures, write news articles to feed into social media channels, and even to launch crowdfunding campaigns. Today, I use all these skills in a concrete way to success in this meaningful project. The School also allowed me to develop my soft skills, which is just as fundamental: knowing how to sell a project to a wide variety of stakeholders, whether it be a research institute, partners or journalists, knowing how to make an impactful pitch, being comfortable speaking in public, etc… these are all skills that are essential for leading a project and that IESEG allowed me to develop as well as to put into practice during my studies”, says Carla Weinberg.
Our 5th year student does not intend to stop there. Indeed, she has embraced the Vision of IÉSEG (Empowering changemakers for a better society) and, instead of a career in finance and auditing which was all set for her, she has chosen to start entrepreneurship with an impact. “My professional experiences have allowed me to really understand what drives me and my vision of our society has evolved. I realized that, in order to be fulfilled in my professional life, I needed to carry out a project that had meaning, and that made things change at my level, without forgetting the positive impact of a “changemaker”! I am currently working on a project of an impactful business in connection with craftsmen in Ivory Coast. I am still in the conceptualization phase, testing the long-term viability, but thanks to IÉSEG and to my brother, I can feel that I am on the right track.
Link to the crowdfunding campaign: https://www.leetchi.com/c/halfs-tour-by-la-teamkm226