The Infinite Sprint

Just how much endurance does a sprinter need? The answer is: a lot more than you think. A new campaign by Swiss sportswear company, On, aims to reframe sport’s single-minded focus on winning - by highlighting perseverance as an equally essential quality for athletes. The campaign is led by a 171 second film, The Infinite Sprint, which paints an intimate portrait of German sprinter Alexandra Burghardt (29) and her 22-year-long journey to becoming a national champion - and is released just as the athlete celebrates another winning performance in the 200m race at the 2023 German Athletics Championships in Kassel.

Centred on the surprising message (for a sports brand) that winning isn’t everything, the film is a powerful reminder that mental strength and a resilient attitude are just as important as crossing the finish line first - whether you’re a professional, aspiring runner or running as a hobby or way of keeping fit.

Filmed in Burghardt’s hometown of Altötting, Germany, and featuring original archive moments from the very beginning of her career, the film portrays Burghardt’s journey with both a sense of childlike wonder and unwavering willpower. It juxtaposes vignettes of Burghardt’s gruelling training schedule with fictional scenes of a young girl of a similar age to Burghardt when she first set out to pursue her dream of becoming a professional sprinter and making it to the Olympics. The evocative visuals are overlaid by Burghardt narrating the challenges of her 22-year-long journey to become a champion - concluding with her powerful realisation that ‘The distance between dream and reality is perseverance - and with every day, this distance gets a little shorter, until the two meet.’