Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) celebrated 20 consecutive years supporting the Galaxy Entertainment Macao International Marathon as one of the event organizers this year, joining hands with the Macau Sports Bureau and the General Association of Athletics of Macau to launch this highly anticipated annual international marathon race.

The 2023 marathon saw the organizers take an innovative approach in showcasing Macau’s charm via the integration of sports, entertainment, gastronomy, culture, tourism and leisure.

This included the implementation of a new marathon course to showcase Macau’s distinctive architecture and landmarks as well as GEG’s newly developed tourism projects – the Galaxy International Convention Center and Raffles at Galaxy Macau.

The marathon course was the standard international length of 42.195km, with a half marathon event of 21.0975km and a special mini marathon of approximately 6.3km in length.

GEG also continued to sponsor the popular “Most Creative Costume Award”, while participants were offered exclusive accommodation packages and selected food and beverage privileges to enjoy the marathon with comfort and convenience. For the 19th consecutive year, GEG had the largest number of employees participating in the mini marathon and again received the Active Group Trophy for its efforts.

Further to organizing the marathon, GEG also showed its commitment to connecting the community through sports and making sports accessible to all walks of life. In this regard, GEG co-launched the “Run with a Partner” Training Program with the Macau Special Olympics (MSO) for the third consecutive year, with the goal of enhancing MSO members’ self-confidence, while developing healthier physical and mental well-being and promoting social inclusion.

Since February, members from the GEG Runner’s Club have accompanied MSO members for regular training to help get them better prepared for the marathon race.

During daily training sessions, the accompanying runners formulated training strategies for each Special Olympics athlete based on their physical condition and psychological qualities – such as adjusting the number of key courses and simulated competitions – so they could predict situations that may occur during the competition and be fully prepared for the race.

Prior to the marathon, GEG also organized a “Run with a Partner” marathon workshop for MSO members and members from the GEG Runner’s Club to encourage them to achieve personal breakthroughs. As a result, three members from MSO – Liu Ka Hou, Chu Kai Chong and Chan Sok Ieng – took part in the half marathon in 2023, accompanied throughout the race by Kenji Cheung, Reno Poon and Kate Kuan from the GEG Runner’s Club. All three successfully completed the half marathon with Chu Kai Chong breaking his personal best by more than 10 minutes over his time last year.

The weekend of the marathon saw GEG organize the 2023 Galaxy Entertainment Macao International Marathon Carnival, helping to promote “marathon fever” to participants from around the world.

The carnival incorporated a parent-child theme featuring a new Kids Running Competition at the Broadway Food Street of Broadway Macau. It also included a special competition for kids aged four to seven, with races broken down into four sessions based on age and all winners given custom medals and designated prizes.

The vibrant family atmosphere showcased four Exhibition Zones to enjoy, those being Marathon-themed Photo Spots; Free Game Booths; a Retail, Cultural and Creative Zone; and Street Performances.

There were six Marathon-themed Photo Spots, including an “I❤️ MARATHON” photo wall; signages of Wavey the Peacock of Galaxy Kidz; a Giant 3D neon light wall featuring 3D neon lights and marathon-themed hashtags for visitors to check-in; a Giant medal installation which was incorporated with the Galaxy Macau integrated resort design to commemorate GEG for being one of the marathon organizers for the first time; a Giant finish line and podium installation where visitors could experience the glory of runners on the race course and the podium; and a Giant gacha machine, filled with various prizes.

In the Retail, Cultural and Creative zone, GEG cooperated with local SMEs to produce marathon-themed crossover products, including limited-edition food, desserts and clothing.

Seven free game booths allowed kids and parents to enjoy novel experiences such VR gaming, allowing them to experience the excitement of racing on the marathon course itself. Visitors could also collect stamps by playing the games, with more stamps available for collection the more games they played. These stamps could then be used to redeem chances to take part in a lucky draw with attractive prizes.

There were five street performances for attendees to enjoy. The event included body art paintings, marathon-themed facial and hand paintings for kids, magic performances, clown performances such as juggling acts and balloon twisting, and more. Professional bubble performers also created gigantic bubbles, inviting kids to play and interact in a world of bubbly fun. All these efforts were made to support local SMEs and local artists.

To promote sports exchanges in the community, GEG also invited MSO and the Fuhong Society of Macau to set up booths at the carnival with nearly 80 members of both participating in the booths, accompanied by GEG Volunteers.

MSO students used this year’s marathon as inspiration to create a “hippo dragon” mobile phone strap matching the marathon’s theme color lanyard. The “hippo dragon” symbolizes strength, steadiness and hard work, echoing the perseverance of marathon runners. There were also Special Olympics towels and medal shaped cookies with the International Special Olympics inclusion slogan “The Revolution is Inclusion,” and “Integration of the New Era”.

Fuhong Society of Macau sold charity products that were made and packaged by service users, with all proceeds going to support the development of arts for people with disabilities and to promote rehabilitation services for people with disabilities.

This wide range of events and activities continued GEG’s long history of proactively promoting Macau’s sports development and supporting various large-scale sports events through multi-pronged approaches, with the goal of facilitating the cross-sectoral integration of “tourism + sports” and contributing to Macau’s positioning as a “City of Sports”.