Sportstravel Podcast

As chief operating officer of Chicago Event Management, which organizes the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Mike Nishi has been the logistics lead for the race since 1990. What started out with 6,000 runners has grown to the one of the largest marathons in the world. In 2019, more than 45,000 people finished the race. After the 2020 race was forced to go virtual, the 2021 race on October 10 proved to be one of the most challenging in the event’s history as COVID regulations forced event organizers to operate differently than they had in the past. In doing so, the Chicago Marathon became the first of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors to be run in person since the pandemic began. In this episode, learn what it took to produce the race, how organizers handled COVID protocols, how organizers communicated with participants and what major takeaways Nishi has for event organizers and host cities staging their own events in a post-COVID world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.