WHAT: Global sports brand PUMA will be hosting an exclusive live conversation between two of the biggest Track and Field legends as part of their #StrongerTogether LIVE Instagram series. Join Usain Bolt and Colin Jackson as they catch up, discuss life updates, and answer some fan questions on PUMA’s Instagram account. Make sure you don’t miss it, follow @puma, @usainbolt, and @colinrayjackson, activate notifications for updates, and enjoy from home. 

WHO: Usain Bolt and Colin Jackson

• Usain Bolt: PUMA sponsored athlete, Fastest Man on Earth
• Colin Jackson: British former sprint and hurdling athlete and World Record holder

WHEN: Thursday, April 23rd, 2020 – 10am PDT/ 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST

WHERE: Follow @PUMA on Instagram to join.

The Weltklasse Zurich meeting belongs to the six meetings of the IAAF Golden League and is known for its unique atmosphere and well-informed audience. The IAAF-Meeting-Evaluation has voted Weltklasse Zurich as the best track in the world 12 times since 1988. Last year, the meeting was televised in more than 150 countries.

“We are very excited about the partnership with the best track meeting in the world,” said Pascal Rolling, PUMA’s International Running Marketing Manager. “We will not only strengthen our brand’s positioning with this sponsorship, we will enlarge it.”

“We welcome PUMA as a new sponsor to our meeting”, says meeting director Hansjörg Wirz. “We are delighted to collaborate with a company that will bring new ideas and promote the meeting to a broader audience.”

Over the years several PUMA athletes have made their mark in Zurich like Americans Renaldo Nehemiah and Evelyn Ashford along side Jamaican Merlene Ottey – with 17 participations in the meeting and overall eight victories, she is one of the darlings of the public. To date there have been 23 world records state in Zurich.

“Even though I stay in shape, I am an actor and not an athlete – but I was fascinated by the idea,” says Bond-movie-actor Clemens Schick. “It does take a certain amount of adventure spirit for a city boy like me to just go running up a mountain like that but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Karsten Schellenberg, the personal fitness trainer who has been preparing Schick for the run for five weeks is confident of success: “Due to his demanding roles as an actor, Clemens is obviously in good shape. Nonetheless this is a tough run and you need to train hard to be able to reach the top but Clemens loved the idea, worked hard for it and had the best product at his disposal”.

The expert trail run challenges participants with a distance of over 230 km and 14,000 meters of altitude and demands a lot of both product and runner. Over the span of eight days, runners not only enjoy the beauty of alpine pastures and woodland paths but also face the challenges of the Tyrolean Alps’ steep gravel trails and icy mountain ridges. As the running teams strive to the top, sudden climate and profile changes demand runners to stay focused at all times and commands the utmost flexibility of both man and material.

As official supplier of the GORE TEXTM Transalpine-Run 2006, PUMA chooses this extraordinary backdrop to demonstrate its point of difference in Running. Balancing the excellence of the performance of its Complete Running products with its lifestyle approach to running, PUMA sends celebrity duo Schellenberg and Schick out to conquer the last relay of a race that starts where the common paths end. Almost 2000 meters of altitude and a distance of close to 29 kilometers is what the duo will face on 9th of September from Schlanders to Latsch in Italy.

“The cooperation with our Swedish partner has been a great success,” General Manager PUMA Nordic AB Ulf Kinneson said. “We are very pleased to extend our contract, keeping the Swedish team in our athletics portfolio as this further strengthens our positioning as one of the leading running brands.”

With outstanding athletes such as 400-meters sprinter Johann Wissman, high-jumper Linus Thornblad and 100-meter-hurdles athlete Jenny Kallur, the Swedish team has scored impressive results in recent years. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Sweden took home three athletics gold medals in men’s high jump, men’s triple jump and the women’s heptathlon.

“The Swedish Athletic Association is very pleased that our successful relationship with PUMA as our official supplier will continue in the next years to come,” said Yngve Andersson, President of the Swedish Athletic Association.

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing this August will be the next major event where PUMA will provide the Swedish athletes with innovative shoes, apparel and equipment to guarantee the perfect starting position for success.

Bolt is the first man in 24 years to win an Olympic sprint double while the Jamaican team finished third in the nation medal table for track and field with six gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

“We were again able to impressively demonstrate PUMA’s undoubted credibility and expertise in world-class sports at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” said Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz. “With our PUMA athletes and primarily Usain Bolt’s world records in the sprints, we once again set new standards and made sports history, strengthening and expanding our position as one of the leading running brands.”

Cameroonian triple jumper Francoise Mbango and javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen from Norway won Olympic titles wearing PUMA Runway apparel.

Bolt, Mbango and Thorkildsen join the group of brilliant PUMA track and field athletes who enjoyed golden moments in Olympic history, such as for example Armin Hary (100m / 1960), Tommie Smith (200m / 1968) and Linford Christie (100m / 1992).

Bolt worked with PUMA to develop the optimum running shoe. Running both the 100m and 200m, he needed a versatile shoe that provided support for power, as well as firmness to hold his foot in place around the turn. Following this collaborative process, the complete Theseus II was born. PUMA produced a gold version of the shoe for Beijing, which helped power him through the greatest sprints of his life so far.

The Olympics also provided the ultimate stage to showcase PUMA’s Runway Collection of clothing and apparel which was inspired by the spirit of the Games and those athletes who came to symbolize it. PUMA’s world class competitors looked the part on and off the track in lifestyle offerings with a sporting edge and performance products provide them with PUMA’s unique offering of fashion and technology.

“Tajay is one of the best young talents out there”,  said Pascal Rolling, Head of Running Sports Marketing for PUMA. “He recently accomplished a great feat during the recent World Champs, and we are sure he will perform great during 2020. He shares all of our brand values, making him the perfect new addition to our roster of Track and Field athletes.”

“I’m so honored and happy to join the PUMA family, just like Usain Bolt,” said Tajay. “I’ve been working hard since I was a kid to accomplish my objectives, and this is definitedly one of them. I can’t explain how exciting this is for me. This new stage will allow me to prove everyone that I’m the best in the game.” 

Tajay comes from a small community in Eastern St. Andrew, Jamaica, he started his carrer trying out different dicisplines, including decathlon, until he found his love for long jump. This happened by chance during one of his training sessions. That day the mat of the high jump was wet, making it hard for him to do a safe landing. His coach made him do long jump practice instead. After this blessing in disguise, he’s been unstoppable.

Deviate, Deviate Elite, Velocity, Liberate, and Eternity styles will be available globally March 4 on PUMA.com, PUMA Stores, and selected retailers worldwide.