__NOTOC__ Thomas Dold (born September 10, 1984, in Wolfach,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

) is a German track and field and extreme athlete and a tower runner, stair runner, world-record holding champion backwards runner. Dold has competed a number of times in the most prestigious tower run of the world, the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story, Art Deco-style supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its n ...

Run Up in New York. He first participated in 2005 and finished second. The next year he won the competition, the youngest competitor ever to do so. When he participated the third time on February 6, 2007, he was able to defend his title. In February 2008 he finished the run with his personal record time of 10 minutes, 8 seconds and won for the third time in a row. He followed it up with another win in 2009 in a time of 10 minutes and 6 seconds. On June 15, 2008, Thomas Dold won the tower run up 2,046 steps to the 91st level of

Taipei 101 The Taipei 101 (; stylized in all caps), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a 508 m (1,667 ft), 101-story skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. It is owned by Taipei Financial Center Corporation. It was Council on Tall Buildings ...

, which was the highest skyscraper of the world at that time. It took him 10 minutes, 53 seconds. Thomas Dold is also part of the world elite in backwards running, the so-called Retro-Running. His greatest success was winning two World Championship titles at any one time in 2006 in Rotkreuz/Switzerland and in 2008 in Pietrasanta/Italy. Currently he holds 5 world records in backwards running between 400 meters and a mile.

Athletic career

Stair running

* 2004: 2nd place Donauturm Run Up,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

* 2004: 1st place Uptown Run Up,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

* 2005: 2nd place

Run Up,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

* 2005: 3rd place Donauturm Run Up, Vienna * 2006: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2006: 2nd place

Run Up, Taipei * 2006: 1st place Sky Run

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

* 2006: 1st place Donauturm Run Up, Vienna * 2006: 1st place Fernsehturmlauf,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

* 2006: 1st place Towerruning,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

* 2007: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2007: 2nd place Taipei 101 Run Up, Taipei * 2007: 1st place Sky Run, Berlin * 2007: 1st place Donauturm Run Up, Vienna * 2007: 1st place Fernsehturmlauf, Stuttgart * 2007: 2nd place Towerruning, Basel * 2008: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2008: 1st place Taipei 101 Run Up, Taipei * 2008: 1st place Swissotel Vertical Marathon, Singapore * 2008: 1st place Sky Run, Berlin * 2008: 1st place Fernsehturmlauf, Stuttgart * 2008: 1st place Pirelli Towerrun, Milan * 2008: 1st place Towerrun, Benidorm * 2009: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2009: 1st place Sydney Tower Run Up, Sydney (7 mins 4 seconds) * 2010: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2010: Withdraw the competition Torre Colpatria Run Up, Bogotá - Colombia * 2011: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2011: 1st place SkyRun, Frankfurt * 2011: 1st place Bitexco Vertical Run,

Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...

* 2012: 1st place Empire State Building Run Up, New York * 2013: 1st place China World Summit Wing Hotel Vertical Run, Beijing * 2013: 1st place Hanoi Vertical Run, Hanoi, Vietnam * 2015: 1st place Hanoi Vertical Run, Hanoi, Vietnam

Backward running

* 2004: German Backward Running champion * 2005: German Backward Running champion * 2006: Backward Running World Champion (400 and 3000 meters) * 2008: Backward Running World Champion (400 and 3000 meters)

Backward running world records

* 2003: 1000 meters (3:32.35, broken in 2008) * 2004: 800 meters (2:40.00, broken in 2008) * 2005: 400 meters (1:09.56) * 2006: 1500 meters (5:24.00) * 2008: 1000 meters (3:20.09) * 2008: 800 meters (2:31.30) * 2015: 10 km (39:20)

External links

Thomas Dold's Website

Report from ARD regarding Dold's Empire State Building Run Up win in 2006

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dold, Thomas 1984 births Living people People from Wolfach Athletes from Freiburg (region) German male sprinters Tower runners 21st-century German sportsmen