The mayor of Calella, Montserrat Candini, and the regional director of Emea, Agustín Pérez, signed the collaboration agreement between the city and the sports event. This year, the IRONMAN Barcelona and the IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona will be held at the same time and Calella will host 6,500 athletes of up to 85 nationalities.
Calella and IRONMAN extend their relationship until 2023. The mayor of Calella, Montserrat Candini, and the regional director of EMEA, Agustín Pérez have formalized the collaboration agreement, placing special emphasis on the test that will be held in October this year.
The main new feature in this 2021 competition release is that the IRONMAN Barcelona - the longest contest- and the IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona - which is half of the previous one - will be held at the same time. This fact means that during the contest, 6,500 athletes of 85 different nationalities will be doing the triathlon, making it the largest race in the world.
Candini celebrates Calella becoming, once again, a "window to the world. IRONMAN not only helps us to strengthen the culture of sports, but also contributes to transforming the city. This year, Calella will be able to reach 20,000 hotel nights, taking into account that the 6,500 athletes spend an average of 4 days overnight. Therefore, commerce, social life and the sports network strengthen each time Calella hosts this world-class competition".
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the contest to be suspended in 2020. Agustín Pérez assures that "this year's contest is doubly special. Calella has everything our athletes need. And our commitment is to offer a safe contest that count on all the measures. Spaces will be doubled and the runners of the long contest will never coincide with those of the average when it comes to changing the scene and modality. "
The relationship between Calella and IRONMAN has been going on since 2014, and when the collaboration agreement signed this morning ends, the city will have hosted the contest in 8 different editions.
IRONMAN 2019 generated 20 million euros in the city
In 2019, the last edition done, generated an economic impact of great magnitude. There were made two contests, the IRONMAN Barcelona and the IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona, on two different dates. In total, about 6,600 athletes participated. The economic impact generated in Calella by the two competitions exceeded 20 million euros.
The athletes brought an average of 2 or 3 companions. This fact caused the hotel, restaurant and commercial sectors to grow exponentially.