COMO (ITALPRESS) – According to the latest Istat data, the share of young Italians who practice sport more or less continuously is 74.6% for the 7-14 years, but falls to 66.1% for the 15-17 years and 55.8% for the 18-19 years. As the age grows, the phenomenon of sports abandonment increases: those who have practiced sports in the past and now do not practice it anymore from 9% of the 7-14 years, to 16% of the 15-17 years and explodes to 28% of the 18-19 years. It is around the theme of abandonment to sport in adolescent age that Decathlon brought together stakeholders from the world of school, sport and institutions, in an attempt to formulate concrete proposals to counter the phenomenon. The study of the causes started from a workshop held in 3 schools in the comasco territory, organized by Decathlon in collaboration with psychologists and mental coach of the “Casetta del Coaching”. The about 70 participants have been thinking about three questions: why do you practice sports?; what are the valuescapacity that the sport you practice teaches you?; What do you expect from the school, the neighborhood where you live and the sports center where you train? The path of listening to young people culminated in the presentation of the results in the Municipality of Como, in an event in the presence of Mayor Alessandro Rapinese and representatives of the world of institutions and sport. The occasion also gave way to formulate hypotheses, generated by comparison, to stem the effects of dropout. Among the answers given by the boys, on what for example could the neighborhood do to help do more physical activity, the young people answered: create sports areas, organize sports events and public conferences with sportsmen; advertise sports companies to entice citizens to practice sports; organize open-day in schools. “For the territory of Como, the initiatives to increase the sport practice implemented by the Regional Committee CONI Lombardia and the president, Marco Riva, through the local delegation focus on the support of amateur societies and on the implementation and requalification of sports facilities, with the aim of making sport more accessible, inclusive and attractive for all age groups – said Adriana Lombardi, Director of the Regional School of Sport CONI Lombardia. Through training, which is our specific task, we prepare people who manage and train young generations to face the challenges of the future, including dropout. In this way, we help the growth of sports culture.” For Miriam Nicchi, Direction Sport Impact, Sport and Health, “it is essential that each Municipality undertakes to promote a new sport culture, capable of involving and joining schools, companies, institutions of the territory and associations in a single network serving citizens. Sport must certainly maintain a priority role for children and young people, but it is necessary to expand its vision to physical activity and culture of movement, so that it becomes an integral part of each life. At every age there is always a practicable physical or sports activity suitable for your needs and this awareness must accompany people throughout their lives. And this is precisely the goal that pursues Sport and Health: foster a widespread, accessible and inclusive sports culture, a sport for everyone and everyone”. Speakers of the appointment, Rosario Cozzolino, Area Manager Decathlon Italia, and Fulvio Matteoni, Head of Institutional Relations Decathlon Italy and Member of the AdvisoryBoard of Osservatorio Valore Sport. “Here in Como we opened a new point of sale recently and we not only opened the doors to customers, but we started to really carry out our mission, that is to develop as much as possible the inclination towards the culture of the physical movement – explained Matteoni -. In Como, as in all the Italian cities, we experience a difficulty: sport abandonment in teenage age. Thanks to the collaboration with the mayor we put together all the actors, all the stakeholders who turn around the world of sports to propose solutions; to do so, we listened to the boys of Como, who have expressed us in a clear way what their expectations are, their problems, their thinking on the theme of sports”. The one at Palazzo Cernezzi “was the first stage, it was the kick-off: we will be ready to deliver to the mayor of Como a dossier well done on what we recommend to him to do to improve this situation and create sporting value in his city”.
– photo Italpress – (ITALPRESS).
