Günter Dieplinger: A runner with a big heart

He doesn’t just run, he runs far. And he encourages others to run too – and to help. Ultra runner Günter Dieplinger from Münchkirchen is an athlete with a big heart. In his free time, the 52-year-old regularly organizes charity runs for people who no longer have the opportunity to do sports. For this commitment, Günter Dieplinger has been nominated for the honorary office award from OÖ Nachrichten and Sportland Oberösterreich. He is one of around 200,000 volunteers who are involved in the 2,500 sports clubs in Upper Austria.

“Do something!”

“I’ve always been very social,” says Dieplinger. Especially the ultra runs with distances well over the marathon distance, which ÖBB employees complete themselves, are often charity runs. “That gave me the idea of ​​organizing such running events in the Innviertel, I thought to myself: do something!” With the CLR Sauwald as an association and supporters from the economy in the background, Dieplinger was able to organize these runs.

Günter Dieplinger has been involved in the organization of charity running events on a voluntary basis for around eight years now. “We organize a run every year, this year we even have two events. The first was a run around Geinberg for Johanna, the 24-hour Sauwald Challenge will take place on September 23rd and 24th in Stadl in the Haugstein region for Thomas.” , reports Dieplinger, who recently completed an extreme run over 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Bremen to Hamburg. He was on the road for more than 25 hours with a fellow runner from Aspach.

A lot of time and energy goes into organizing the running events. “There’s a lot that comes together, but we all like doing it, so you don’t pay so much attention to the time. And you get so much back,” he says. For example, the little boy who was supported with the first running event took part in all the other runs. “Not only is it important to me that the donations remain in the region, but we also keep in close contact with everyone to whom we gave the donations and visit the people again and again.”

Dieplinger not only shows endurance when running, but also when helping. The native of Münzkirch received a lot of support from his girlfriend and friend Johann Schmolz, who always stood by his side.

With the campaign “Thank you!” the OÖ Nachrichten and the Sportland Oberösterreich bring the volunteers in front of the curtain and want to say thank you together with our empty community for this commitment.

1000 euros for the district winners

In the past few weeks, the OÖN have called for volunteers to be nominated. Until September 10, you can still vote on nachrichten.at who will emerge as the district winner in the respective region – the prize for the winner: 1000 euros.

• All candidates from the 16 regions can be found at nachrichten.at/ehrenamt.
  You can vote until September 10th to decide who will be the district winner – they will receive 1,000 euros.