ABOUT US

AxESS – Athletes for Equity & Sustainability in Sport is an international non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring every athlete can claim their space at the starting line. We dismantles the systemic, physical, and financial barriers to global marathons by funding individual journeys and partnering with race organizers to build a world where every course is universally accessible and inclusive by design.

We believe that true inclusion is not passive accommodation or charity, but a cornerstone of athletic integrity that requires intentional, rigorous design. The AxESS vision fundamentally demands an ecosystem engineered for all. Inclusion cannot be piecemeal. A truly equitable starting line ensures that no individual—whether sidelined by physical, visual, or communication barriers, or systemic exclusion based on gender identity—is made to feel like an asterisk on the results sheet.

Every athlete training for a marathon or half marathon commits the same determination, discipline, and sweat. Their arena must honor that dedication by providing valid, respected, and equal pathways to compete, score, and be celebrated.

THE FOUNDERS

Thomas Eller

Co-Founder | The Vision

Based in Essen, Germany, Thomas is a Deaf-born educator, accomplished marathon runner, inclusion advocate and trailblazer who has become a leading voice for greater Deaf inclusion in global road racing. As a specialized teacher of Deaf students, his commitment to accessibility reaches far beyond sport. Empowering the next generation and creating a world with fewer barriers are at the heart of everything he does.

Thomas became the first Deaf-born athlete to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors circuit and has since completed the circuit four times. He holds Guinness World Records connected to his achievements across the World Marathon Majors and represented Germany in the marathon at the Deaflympics.

But his impact on running extends far beyond medals, records and finish lines. Drawing on his own lived experience of communication barriers, accessibility gaps and safety challenges as a Deaf runner, Thomas began turning those experiences into action. Rather than simply adapting to systems that were not designed with Deaf athletes in mind, he started working directly with race organizations to change them. His advocacy has reached all eight Abbott World Marathon Majors, as well as races in Prague, Valencia, Amsterdam and beyond. His work has helped introduce and advance practical measures including the Deaf Runner identification bib, improved communication access, greater visibility and stronger awareness of the safety and accessibility needs of Deaf athletes.

For Thomas, accessibility is not about special treatment. It is about equity: giving every athlete the opportunity to participate safely, independently, with dignity and with a true sense of belonging. Through AxESS, Thomas brings together lived experience, education, endurance sport and years of hands-on inclusion advocacy to transform lessons learned on individual race courses into lasting change across the sport. His vision is simple but ambitious: a future where accessibility is not an afterthought, but part of how every great race is designed from the very beginning.

Marathon runners Thomas Eller (left) and Matteo Anson Valeri (right) posing together with multiple race medals in front of a traditional Japanese pagoda in Tokyo.

Matteo Anson Valeri

Co-Founder | The Witness

Based in Malmö, Sweden, Matteo is the structural architect of the AxESS vision. An international legal counsel by profession, he brings a decade of non profit leadership and legal strategy devoted to removing architectural barriers and advancing independent living to the fight for sporting equity.

As a marathon veteran and 6 Star World Marathon Major Finisher, Matteo recognized early on that while the road itself may be the same for every runner, the path to the start line is not and that the vast majority of global races are still neither welcoming nor structured for true accessibility. Having shared hundreds of miles across the globe alongside Thomas and diverse athletic communities, he witnessed firsthand the systemic, financial and logistical barriers that continue to sideline talent.

Building on Thomas’s years of pioneering advocacy, Matteo developed structural solutions to turn those ground level insights into a scalable global framework. He conceived The Equal Start Grant to relieve the financial burden on adaptive runners, and authored both The Purple Book operational standards and The AxESS Seal of Inclusion certification framework in collaboration with Thomas, flipping the paradigm so race organizations proactively seek guidance to build accessible events. Through AxESS, Matteo leverages his legal and strategic expertise to transform inclusion from a charitable act into a permanent global benchmark.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is built on two pillars:

Individual Access:
Financial Equity & Logistical Freedom

The Equal Start Grant directly neutralizes the invisible extra financial strain—the Disability Tax—that places an unfair burden on athletes specifically due to their disability, medical condition, or adaptive needs. By fully funding specialized equipment transport, adapted logistics, and essential support team of choice through the “Plus One” Protocol, we eliminate the secondary costs associated with competing with a disability. We guarantee that no athlete’s choice, dignity, or athletic potential is dictated by the financial cost of their condition.

We ensure that the path to the start line is as fair and open
as the race itself.

Universal Access:
Institutional & Structural Equity

True inclusion requires changing the environment, not just helping individuals navigate a flawed system. Through our institutional advocacy, we partner directly with race organizers to embed universal design, structural representation, and genuine belonging into global event infrastructure. Our work ensures that world-class marathons actively welcome every runner—regardless of background, identity, or physical ability—shifting the participant experience from “Can I race?” to “I belong here.” To codify these standards, we developed The Purple Book as the definitive global operational benchmark. Beginning in 2027, we will audit and award the AxESS Seal of Inclusion across Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers to recognize races based on their degree of alignment with these established framework criteria.

We are not merely building a temporary bridge for a few to cross; we are re-engineering the road so that everyone can run on it freely and independently.