Number of young adults participating in Nijmegen Vierdaagse walking event keeps rising

More than 20.5 percent of participants in this year's Nijmegen Vierdaagse walking event are ages 21 to 30, up sharply from 7.5 percent in 2016, NOS reports. The share of participants aged 21 to 30 has increased almost every year since 2016. The event, which begins Tuesday, is also part of a broader rise in walking among young adults since the Covid-19 pandemic.

For many young walkers, the appeal is both the physical challenge and the experience of taking part in one of the Netherlands' largest walking events.

"Taking part in the Vierdaagse walking event, with around 40,000 other people, is so unique," Emiel Fleer, 26, who is participating for the second time, told NOS. "Normally, walking 50 kilometers is not fun, but with the Vierdaagse walking event, it is."

Gijs Janssen, managing director of the Royal Dutch Walking Association, said the Covid pandemic helped drive the interest in walking. In 2020 and 2021, the Netherlands was largely shut down, and people had few options for activities, Janssen told NOS.

Janssen also said young people and young adults are increasingly setting athletic goals. "That fits with bucket-list behavior. You also see that in the popularity of half-marathons and marathons and, for example, HYROX competitions. Young people want to take part in events and train together for a goal," he told NOS.

This year, organizers of the Vierdaagse walking event in Nijmegen will test women's urinals for the first time this summer in an effort to curb public urination.

The so-called pink urinals, which can be used by three women at once, will be placed in busy areas of the city center, including the train station square. Organizers are also adding 50 men's urinals at locations where public urination is a problem. Data from the event show that men account for 95 percent of people caught urinating in public.