Sporting legends help raise €40,000 for Laureus in Austria

A football legend, a star of field hockey, along with the support of an alpine ski great, all took to the famous White Ring Ski race in Austria’s Lech at the weekend.

And by the time they reached the finish line, an incredible €40000 had been raised for the Laureus Foundation in Germany and Austria.

The money will go to the Austrian Laureus charity sports project “Snow Tigers”.

Along with the Laureus Ambassadors Christa Kinshofer, Jens Lehmann and Stefan Blöcher, around 1,000 participants completed the race.

Overall, a donation of €35,000 came thanks to the generous support of Mercedes-Benz , Tyrolean Walnut Oil, the Hotel Aurelio, the entrepreneur Erich Obermaier and the ski resort of Lech am Arlberg, the official region partner of Laureus.

But as the donation was being offered, the bookmakers betsafe.com spontaneously added € 5,000 on top of it, rounding up the total donation to €40,000.

Laureus Ambassador and German ski legend Christa Kinshofer, who was taking part in the race for the fourth time, said: "Skiing is still a passion of mine - but it also lets me do something good. As an Ambassador for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, I can combine the two. I am glad if my participation in the race can make a difference to socially disadvantaged children and young people. The Snow Tiger project is aimed at children and young people with disabilities and enables them access to winter sports, something that would be very difficult to secure otherwise. The money that we have collected, they will benefit from. "