The goal of the Athletics 4 Health Project is to counteract a decline in physical activity among children and
adolescents by using the athletics discipline.
Research conducted by World Health Organization and research units of individual countries clearly shows that
the percentage of children who do not meet the WHO requirements regarding minimum physical activity is still
growing. The activities carried out so far do not bring the expected results, therefore the EU recommends
increasing efforts to cooperate with large organizations affecting the physical activity of children and young people
in order to create new, better policies and systemic solutions.
Answering above issues, the Athletics 4 Health project was created. It will be implementing from 1 st January 2021
till 31 st December 2023.
• Cooperation of five national sports organizations: the Austrian Athletics Association, the Bulgarian Athletics
Federation, the Finnish Athletic Federation, the Polish Athletics Association, the Slovak Athletics Federation, with
extensive experience in the field of sport and experienced human resources.
• Use of athletics, which is a reference to HEPA's recommendations for returning to “grassroots” sports.
The result of the Athletics 4 Health project will be the creation of ‘The strategy for increasing the physical
activity of children and adolescents through athletics’.
It will be a document containing:
• Analysis of resource and needs related to practicing physical activity in Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland and
Slovakia,
• Collection of "good practices"; used in the above countries,
• Guidelines for national sports organizations, sports clubs, schools, sports associations and parents regarding
solutions aimed at increasing the physical activity of children and young people.
The document will be disseminated throughout Europe to encourage other countries to intensify their efforts to
increase the physical activity of children and young people.
During the project our federations will continue to cooperate in field of promotion of athletics for kids and youth.
