ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Racchette, canoe, tatami, a climbing wall and curling tracks emerge among the platani of the Villa Comunale of Naples: from this morning, a stone’s throw from the sails of the America’s Cup, 3,000 students peacefully invaded the waterfront to try, free and for the first time, dozens of different sports.
This is how the #BeActive MultiSport Village, the main event of the European Sport Week, inaugurated in the presence of the Minister for Sport and Young Andrea Abodi and the President of Sport and Health Marco Mezzaroma.
To welcome Minister Abodi hundreds of young people from the Neapolitan schools to try out the 30 different sports disciplines, under the guidance of the technicians of the different National Sports Federations and the bodies involved. Together with them also the Ambassadors and members of the Illumina team of Sport and Health, from the Olympic champion Francesca Lollibrigida, to Manuel Bortuzzo, from the “napoletani” Pino Maddaloni and Sandro Cuomo, up to Valerio Vermiglio and Alessia Filippi.
The choice of Naples as the seat of the National Main Event is not random: the concurrent with the preliminary races of the America’s Cup has allowed to unite a great international sporting event to promote all disciplines and the spread of sports culture and physical activity among citizens, in accordance with the claim of the edition 2026, “#BeActive Your Way: No pressure, no judgement.”.
The multisports village of Naples, which will be open free of charge from 9 to 18 until 27 September, is only one of the 1,000 initiatives that in these days animate Italy within the European Sport Week, promoted by the Ministry for Sport and Youth and coordinated by the Department for Sport, with Sport and Health that takes care of its operational implementation throughout the national territory. Among these also another multi-sports village, set up in Viterbo. Tomorrow, after 18, the #BeActive Night will be scattered throughout Italy, with various activities planned in the Illumina Sports Spaces of Genoa, Cologno Monzese, Trapani, Pomezia, Rieti and Guidonia.
In Naples the Italian Sailing Federation will take the participants in the sea with a boarding on the RSFava from the Caivano Hub on the beach of the Mappatella, in collaboration with the Campania sailing circles, for a race at sunset until 20; at the same time, will take place the initiative “Sui Cammini di Francesco”, an urban walk from Piazza Vittoria to the monumental complex of Santa Chiara. The evening ends in music, from 20 to 23, in Piazza del Plebiscito with the charity show “An evening of stars for Pupi”, where at the main entrance there will be sports activities dedicated to BeActive.
“We strongly wanted to tie this event with this second round of America’s Cup preliminary races scheduled in Naples, to renounce and implement the principle of sport for all, as stated in article 33 of our Constitution. Seeing this morning thousands of girls and young people moving, trying 30 sports disciplines, smiling side by side with technicians and Olympic and Paralympic athletes, is the most beautiful demonstration of what the European Sport Week means,” said the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi.
“The slogan “BeActive your way” comes to life just at times like this: everyone finds their own way of being active, without pressure, without judgments and without anxiety from performance. We will continue to work because sport in all its forms becomes a constant part of the everyday life of all citizens, starting from schools and urban and social suburbs.”.
“This is the demonstration of how sport can unite – said the President of Sport and Health, Marco Mezzaroma -. Thousands of students who opened together with us the village promoted within the European Sport Week, in an extraordinary setting like that of the America’s Cup preliminary races. This is what the government asks us to do: to bring sport within the daily life of people, to Naples and throughout Italy, where in these same days about a thousand appointments are promoted. A commitment that expands with the activities foreseen in the Sport Illumina spaces already active”.
– Press Office Photos Sport and Health –
(ITALPRESS).
