Engadin Skimarathon 2020 canceled

The coronavirus rampant in China, which has infected over 78,000 people and caused over 1100 deaths since January 2020, has reached Europe and led to a significant outbreak, particularly in Italy. The first cases have also appeared in Switzerland. Now the government of Graubünden has banned the large-scale event in the Engadine to protect the health of the population.

This measure is a shock for all participants of the Engadin Ski Marathon and a hard blow for the tourism of Switzerland's largest vacation region, which probably has to cope with a loss of millions. Almost 17,000 people would have visited the region to take part in the sporting event, but now it has been unexpectedly cancelled. These visitors and their companions will now be missing and a world-famous sporting event will be cancelled. How great is the damage to the region and also to the reputation of the event? That is difficult to assess today. It also remains to be seen whether and how the participants will be compensated, or even whether regional businesses will be compensated.

In view of the small number of infected people in Switzerland - only 15 cases have been counted to date, two of them in the canton of Graubünden/Engadin - it is questionable whether the measure is not too drastic and too disproportionate. The measure seems almost a little hysterical and panicky. On the other hand, relatively little is known about the coronavirus and a mass gathering of people provides the best possible opportunity for a virus to spread. In contrast to the spread of the SARS virus anno 2002-2004, the coronavirus seems to spread much stronger and faster, even if the disease seems to be much more harmless than SARS. According to our research, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, there were more than 8,000 infections with the SARS cases, while with the coronavirus there are already 10 times as many. In order to prevent the spread of the virus in the canton of Graubünden, the cantonal government has banned all major events of national importance until March 8, 2020.

One can only regret the cancellation of this event and such sports events. The future will show whether this drastic measure was justified. Unfortunately, even as a supporter of an open world community, it must be said that the corona virus is one of the dark sides of globalization. Already for the second time a virus from China is haunting the world community and threatening world health. Maybe it would be time to tell China about health and environmental protection and to act with sanctions, because China harms with its viruses not only the global health, but also the national and global economy.

Image source: swiss-image.ch, Andy Mettler